Fire safety on fuel containers

Fire safety on fuel containers can be improved at its initial stage if flame spreading can be controlled. Therefore, the understanding of the fundamental processes that control flame spreading will help us to determine a few control parameters that could be useful to improve security in fuel deposits. A series of experiments have been conducted in different fuel containers that helped to understand the basic mechanisms involved. A new phenomenon of convection ahead of the flame is observed in liquid fuels that do not appear in solid fuels. Finally, two control factors have been found useful to control fire spread: the initial fuel surface temperature and the convection zone observed in front of the flame. The first experimental results observed controlling these two factors led flame to spreading velocities of order 1 cm s–1 and, in some cases, flame extinguishes.