Characterization of indoor and outdoor pool fires with active calorimetry

A water cooled, 1 m {times} 1 m, vertical calorimeter panel has been used in conjunction with other fire diagnostics to characterize a 6 m {times} 6 m outdoor and three 3 m {times} 3 m indoor JP-4 pool fires. Measurements reported include calorimeter surface heat flux and surface temperatures, flame temperatures, and gas flow velocities in the fire. From the data, effective radiative absorption coefficients for various zones in the fires have been estimated. The outdoor test was conducted at Sandia`s Coyote Canyon test facility, while indoor tests were conducted at the indoor SMokE Reduction Facility (SMERF) at the same location. The measurements provide data useful in calibrating simple analytic fire models intended for the analysis of packages containing hazardous materials.