Understanding fire dynamics and combustion is essential in fire safety engineering and in fire science curricula. Engineers and students involved in fire protection, safety and investigation need to know and predict how fire behaves to be able to implement adequate safety measures and hazard analyses. Fire phenomena encompass everything about the scientific principles behind fire behavior. Combining the principles of chemistry, physics, heat and mass transfer, and fluid dynamics necessary to understand the fundamentals of fire phenomena, this book integrates the subject into a clear discipline: Covers thermochemistry including mixtures and chemical reactions; Introduces combustion to the fire protection student; Discusses premixed flames and spontaneous ignition; Presents conservation laws for control volumes, including the effects of fire; Describes the theoretical bases for empirical aspects of the subject of fire; Analyses ignition of liquids and the importance of evaporation including heat and mass transfer; Features the stages of fire in compartments, and the role of scale modeling in fire. Fundamentals of Fire Phenomena is an invaluable reference tool for practising engineers in any aspect of safety or forensic analysis. Fire safety officers, safety practitioners and safety consultants will also find it an excellent resource. In addition, this is a must-have book for senior engineering students and postgraduates studying fire protection and fire aspects of combustion.

Table of Contents:
Preface xiii Nomenclature xvii 1 Introduction to Fire 1 1.1 Fire in History 1 1.2 Fire and Science 2 1.3 Fire Safety and Research in the Twentieth Century 8 1.4 Outlook for the Future 10 1.5 Introduction to This Book 11 1.5.1 Thermodynamics 13 1.5.2 Fluid mechanics 14 1.5.3 Heat and mass transfer 15 1.5.4 Supportive references 16 References 17 Problems 17 2 Thermochemistry 19 2.1 Introduction 19 2.2 Chemical Reactions 20 2.3 Gas Mixture 23 2.4 Conservation Laws for Systems 25 2.4.1 Constant pressure reaction 27 2.4.2 Heat of combustion 28 2.4.3 Adiabatic flame temperature 29 2.5 Heat of Formation 30 2.6 Application of Mass and Energy Conservation in Chemical Reactions 31 2.7 Combustion Products in Fire 35 References 41 Problems 41 3 Conservation Laws for Control Volumes 49 3.1 Introduction 49 3.2 The Reynolds Transport Theorem 50 3.3 Relationship between a Control Volume and System Volume 53 3.4 Conservation of Mass 54 3.5 Conservation of Mass for a Reacting Species 56 3.6 Conservation of Momentum 59 3.7 Conservation of Energy for a Control Volume 61 Problems 70 4 Premixed Flames 77 4.1 Introduction 77 4.2 Reaction Rate 78 4.3 Autoignition 80 4.4 Piloted Ignition 85 4.5 Flame Speed, Su 88 4.5.1 Measurement techniques 89 4.5.2 Approximate theory 90 4.5.3 Fuel lean results 93 4.5.4 Heat loss effects and extinction 93 4.6 Quenching Diameter 95 4.7 Flammability Limits 98 4.8 Empirical Relationships for the Lower Flammability Limit 102 4.9 A Quantitative Analysis of Ignition, Propagation and Extinction 105 4.9.1 Autoignition calculations 105 4.9.2 Piloted ignition calculations 107 4.9.3 Flame propagation and extinction calculations 107 4.9.4 Quenching diameter calculations 108 References 109 Problems 110 5 Spontaneous Ignition 117 5.1 Introduction 117 5.2 Theory of Spontaneous Ignition 119 5.3 Experimental Methods 124 5.4 Time for Spontaneous Ignition 127 References 130 Problems 131 6 Ignition of Liquids 135 6.1 Introduction 135 6.2 Flashpoint 135 6.3 Dynamics of Evaporation 137 6.4 Clausius–Clapeyron Equation 141 6.5 Evaporation Rates 146 References 154 Problems 154 7 Ignition of Solids 159 7.1 Introduction 159 7.2 Estimate of Ignition Time Components 161 7.2.1 Chemical time 161 7.2.2 Mixing time 162 7.2.3 Pyrolysis 163 7.3 Pure Conduction Model for Ignition 164 7.4 Heat Flux in Fire 166 7.4.1 Typical heat flux levels 166 7.4.2 Radiation properties of surfaces in fire 167 7.4.3 Convective heating in fire 167 7.4.4 Flame radiation 169 7.4.5 Heat flux measurements 170 7.4.6 Heat flux boundary conditions 170 7.5 Ignition in Thermally Thin Solids 171 7.5.1 Criterion for thermally thin 171 7.5.2 Thin theory 172 7.5.3 Measurements for thin materials 174 7.6 Ignition of a Thermally Thick Solid 176 7.6.1 Thick theory 176 7.6.2 Measurements for thick materials 180 7.6.3 Autoignition and surface ignition 182 7.7 Ignition Properties of Common Materials 184 References 188 Problems 188 8 Fire Spread on Surfaces and Through Solid Media 191 8.1 Introduction 191 8.2 Surface Flame Spread – The Thermally Thin Case 194 8.3 Transient Effects 198 8.4 Surface Flame Spread for a Thermally Thick Solid 200 8.5 Experimental Considerations for Solid Surface Spread 202 8.5.1 Opposed flow 202 8.5.2 Wind-aided 207 8.6 Some Fundamental Results for Surface Spread 210 8.7 Examples of Other Flame Spread Conditions 213 8.7.1 Orientation effects 213 8.7.2 Porous media 215 8.7.3 Liquid flame spread 216 8.7.4 Fire spread through a dwelling 217 References 219 Problems 220 9 Burning Rate 227 9.1 Introduction 227 9.2 Diffusive Burning of Liquid Fuels 233 9.2.1 Stagnant layer 233 9.2.2 Stagnant layer solution 237 9.2.3 Burning rate – an eigenvalue 241 9.3 Diffusion Flame Variables 243 9.3.1 Concentrations and mixture fractions 243 9.3.2 Flame temperature and location 246 9.4 Convective Burning for Specific Flow Conditions 248 9.5 Radiation Effects on Burning 255 9.6 Property Values for Burning Rate Calculations 259 9.7 Suppression and Extinction of Burning 261 9.7.1 Chemical and physical factors 261 9.7.2 Suppression by water and diluents 262 9.8 The Burning Rate of Complex Materials 267 9.9 Control Volume Alternative to the Theory of Diffusive Burning 269 9.9.1 Condensed phase 271 9.9.2 Gas phase 274 9.10 General Considerations for Extinction Based on Kinetics 277 9.10.1 A demonstration of the similarity of extinction in premixed and diffusion flames 279 9.11 Applications to Extinction for Diffusive Burning 281 References 285 Problems 286 10 Fire Plumes 297 10.1 Introduction 297 10.2 Buoyant Plumes 302 10.2.1 Governing equations 302 10.2.2 Plume characteristic scales 306 10.2.3 Solutions 308 10.3 Combusting Plumes 311 10.4 Finite Real Fire Effects 313 10.4.1 Turbulent axial flame temperatures 313 10.4.2 Plume temperatures 317 10.4.3 Entrainment rate 319 10.4.4 Flame height 322 10.4.5 Jet flames 323 10.4.6 Flame heights for other geometries 325 10.5 Transient Aspects of Fire Plumes 326 10.5.1 Starting plume 327 10.5.2 Fireball or thermal 328 References 332 Problems 334 11 Compartment Fires 339 11.1 Introduction 339 11.1.1 Scope 340 11.1.2 Phases of fires in enclosures 340 11.2 Fluid Dynamics 342 11.2.1 General flow pattern 342 11.2.2 Vent flows 343 11.3 Heat Transfer 347 11.3.1 Convection 348 11.3.2 Conduction 348 11.3.3 Radiation 349 11.3.4 Overall wall heat transfer 351 11.3.5 Radiation loss from the vent 351 11.4 Fuel Behavior 352 11.4.1 Thermal effects 352 11.4.2 Ventilation effects 353 11.4.3 Energy release rate (firepower) 354 11.5 Zone Modeling and Conservation Equations 355 11.5.1 Conservation relationships 356 11.5.2 Dimensionless factors in a solution 357 11.6 Correlations 358 11.6.1 Developing fires 358 11.6.2 Fully developed fires 360 11.7 Semenov Diagrams, Flashover and Instabilities 365 11.7.1 Fixed area fire 366 11.7.2 Second item ignition 366 11.7.3 Spreading fires 368 References 369 Problems 370 12 Scaling and Dimensionless Groups 377 12.1 Introduction 377 12.2 Approaches for Establishing Dimensionless Groups 378 12.2.1 Buckingham pi method 379 12.2.2 Partial differential equation (PDE) method 379 12.2.3 Dimensional analysis 380 12.3 Dimensionless Groups from the Conservation Equations 380 12.3.1 Conservation of mass 381 12.3.2 Conservation of momentum 381 12.3.3 Energy equation 382 12.3.4 Heat losses 384 12.3.5 Mass flows 385 12.3.6 Liquid droplets 386 12.3.7 Chemical species 388 12.3.8 Heat flux and inconsistencies 389 12.3.9 Summary 392 12.4 Examples of Specific Correlations 394 12.4.1 Plume interactions with a ceiling 395 12.4.2 Smoke filling in a leaky compartment 396 12.4.3 Burning rate 397 12.4.4 Compartment fire temperature 398 12.4.5 Effect of water sprays on fire 400 12.5 Scale Modeling 401 12.5.1 Froude modeling 402 12.5.2 Analog scaling methods 403 References 407 Appendix 409 Flammability Properties 409 Archibald Tewarson 409 Index 435