Experimental Study on Fire Behaviors of Kerosene/Additive Blends

The widely used fuels in practical are blended fuel whose combustion characteristics is more complex than those of the single-component fuel in real fire scenarios. The fire behaviors of aviation kerosene/diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (DGM) blends (R-D) and aviation kerosene/ethanol (R-E) blends were studied using a cone calorimeter. The parameters of pool fires, including the ignition time, burning rate, fuel temperature, heat release rate and combustion yield, were investigated. Janssens’ method was adopted to analyze the ignition times of the two blends. Two types of representative burning processes for blended fuel pool fires were identified. For R-D blends, the burning process is similar to that for typical pure fuels. The process for R-E blends, however, is novel, having two obvious burning processes due to the appearance of an intermediate decay stage. The fuel exhaust mass fraction (approximately 15%) was found to be almost constant throughout the intermediate decay stage. The fuel temperature during the experiment indicated that the liquid surface boiling temperature of R-D blends ranges from 162°C to 200°C depending upon the composition of these blends. For R-E blends, the initial boiling temperature is affected by the ethanol ratio, while the boiling temperature in the second process is equal to the boiling temperature of pure RP-3 kerosene. When the ethanol ratio is lower than 40%, the initial boiling temperature of R-E blends is approximately 120°C; when the ethanol ratio is higher than 40%, the boiling temperature is equal to the boiling point of ethanol. A method for calculating the burning rate of each component in the burning processes of the two blends is put forward, with the results agreeing well with the interpretation of the two burning processes. The ratio of the combustion yield CO₂/CO and the carbon conversion ratio increase with the oxygenated fuel ratio, indicating that the combustion is more complete when oxygenated fuel is added. These results will be useful for fire hazard assessment and firefighting in terms of fuel storage and transportation.