Graduate Student
380 INSCC
155 South, 1452 East
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-1114
Phone: 801-585-1240
Fax: 801-585-1456
E-mail: weseldredge[@]yahoo.com
My work focuses on pool-fire models, and an important input to pool-fire models is the fuel evaporation rate. The evaporation has frequently been assumed to be constant with time for simplicity of fire simulations. In reality, a complex, coupled relationship exists between the heat feedback of the fire and the evaporation rate of the fuel that feeds the flame. This research attempts to model the fuel section of the pool fire and compute the fuel vaporization rate as a function of the flame radiation feedback to the pool and the flame temperature. The model to be developed will take into account different sizes of pool fires and the different modes of heat input to the pool. Experimental data is then used to validate the model, and then the model is incorporated into existing pool fire models. Consideration is also given to pool fires where the fuel saturates a porous media (concrete, dirt, etc.).
