MEDIUM-SCALE EXPERIMENTS OF FIRE WAREHOUSES

This study, funded by AFILOG, focuses on the threat caused by the large heat releases from warehouse fires. The objective is to improve the understanding of the propagation of the fire inside the warehouse and to quantify the heat fluxes experienced in the vicinity of the warehouse. This will ultimately help refine the modelling tool presently employed by INERIS [1] to evaluate the thermal effects from warehouse fires on nearby populations and/or other industrial installations. Such an evaluation is important, for example, to help land-use planning. Medium-scale experiments of warehouse fires (see Figures 1 and 2) were conducted in a purpo-sedly built 3 metres high building with a section of 4.3 x 4 m2. One side of the building was open and the top was covered with a plywood. This roof was meant to help the propagation of the fire and then disappear so as to be representative of a fully-developed fire in a large warehouse. Four steel racks were set up inside the building on which were stacked 40 cm x 40 cm x 50 cm high wood cribs made of pine sticks. To monitor the fire propagation, 52 measurements of temperature were undertaken with thermocouples throughout the storage area. Outside the building, heat fluxes were measured at a total of 20 locations in front of the building and on the two sides. The heat flux metres were located at different distances from the building and different heights. Videos were recorde