Vortical structures in pool fires: Observation, speculation, and simulation

While all fires are complex and involve many phenomena, this report is limited to large, turbulent liquid-hydrocarbon pool fires. Large, liquid-hydrocarbon pool fires present a risk in petrochemical storage and processing facilities and transportation systems that contain large amounts of liquid hydrocarbons. This report describes observations, speculations, and numerical simulations of vortical structures in pool fires. Vortical structures are observed in fires with length scales ranging from those that bend millimeter-thick flame zones to those that entrain air many meters from the edge of the fire to its centerline. The authors propose that baroclinic vorticity generation is primarily responsible for production of rotational motion at small scale and that amalgamation is responsible for the production of large-scale rotational structures from the myriad of small-scale structures. Numerical simulations show that vortical structures having time-mean definitions can be resolved with a Reynolds-Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach. However, for vortical structures without time-mean definition, RANS is inappropriate, and another technique, such as Large Eddy Simulation (LES), should be employed. 39 refs., 52 figs., 3 tabs