Improving Freight Fire Safety: Experiment Testing and Computer Modeling to Further Development of Mist-Controlling Additives for Fire Mitigation

Authors

Albert Ratner Ph.D., University of Iowa
University of Iowa, University of Iowa

Date of this Version

2012

Document Type

Article

Citation

Report # MATC-UI: 372 Final Report 25-1121-0001-372

Comments

2012 Copyright of Mid-America Transportation Center

Abstract

With the purpose to minimize or prevent crash-induced fires in road and rail transportation, the current interest in bio-derived and blended transportation fuels is increasing. Based on two years of preliminary testing and analysis, it appears to be clear that polymeric additives may be added to diesel fuel to mitigate the formation of fine mists while allow regular flow through the fuel system. In this work, computer modeling was adapted as a fast and cost-effective methodology to identify the target range where polymeric additives could impact the shear-thickening effect on fuels. The Volume of Fraction (VOF) method was used within the commercial software Fluent to compute droplet behavior. Two new computational models, the combined SCA-DCA model with Jiang’s correlation and the SCA-DCA model with exponential fitting, were proposed and imposed as the boundary conditions, showing a best-fit behavior with the experiment results.