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

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 static contact angle-dynamic contact angle (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.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Edition: Final Report
  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 22p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01469922
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 25-1121-0001-372, MATC-UI: 372
  • Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
  • Created Date: Jan 17 2013 1:56PM