Applicability analysis of mathematical models for the combustion characteristics in the pool fire

A pool fire characterized by high temperature and heat radiation, is a common accident in chemical industry. The important combustion characteristic parameters are the heat radiation flux, the burning rate, the flame height, etc., but the most significant one is the heat radiation flux. The calculation model of the pool fire has an important role to assess the accident. There are three types of widely used pool fire models, the Shokri and Beyler model, the Mudan model, and the point source model. The models are used to calculate the combustion parameters of three different kinds of oils in tanks of different scales. The predictions of three models are compared with the simulation results. The analysis shows that the point source model has a large error for pool fires with the diameter greater than 10 m and the thermal radiation flux smaller than 5 kW/m$^2$, and the model is more applicable to heavy crude pool fires. The scope of application of the Mudan model is broader, and this model ensures higher accuracy if the thermal radiation flux is smaller than 5 kW/m$^2$. The Shokri and Beyler model is more suitable for the case where the pool fire diameter is greater than 40 m and the thermal radiation flux is above 5 kW/m$^2$, and the results for the light crude pool fire based on this model are more reasonable.