Experimental analysis of storage fires for a better understanding of warehouse fires

Stéphanie Patej (1) , Luc Fournier (1) , André Carrau (1)

1 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques

Land-use Planning rules applicable in France around listed hazardous industrial premises rely on a deterministic evaluation of the consequences of major accidents such fires, explosions, toxic cloud releases. Major fire scenarios relevant to storage areas shall in this context be carefully analyzed by safety engineers in concerned industrial facilities like large warehouses storing combustible materials. In this background, the French Ministry for Ecology and Sustainable Development currently supports INERIS for the performance of a research program concerning the warehouse fire problem. The program mainly focuses on the development of a methodology addressing the evaluation of the toxic and thermal threats pertaining to warehouse fires. This paper presents a series of large experiments aiming at analyzing the influence of storage configuration on the development and overall behavior of warehouse fires. The document is divided in two sections : the first one presenting the experimental apparatus, the second introducing results derived from the global measurement analysis.

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Stéphanie Patej, Luc Fournier, André Carrau. Experimental analysis of storage fires for a better understanding of warehouse fires. 10. International Interflam Conference, Jul 2004, Edimbourg, United Kingdom. pp.469-474. ⟨ineris-00976154⟩