Abstract
A combined experimental and analytical study was performed to determine the effect of pressure on the heat transfer of pool fire in a closed chamber. A series of ethanol pool fires with nominal diameters from 4 cm to 10 cm were conducted for a wide range of pressure conditions in between ~ 60 kPa to 250 kPa. Considering the effect of pressure, a theoretical formulation was proposed to estimate the radiation flux received by the pool surface from the chamber wall and hot gases. The relationship between the modified mass burning flux of pool fire and pressure was obtained. It was found that external radiation heat transfer received by pool surface depends significantly on gas temperature and its radiative properties and wall temperature. Results showed that these parameters are highly coupled in determining the effect of pressure to the external radiation. Furthermore, the average mass burning flux modified by the obtained external radiation was fitted with pressure by a power function and the fitted exponent value was consistent with theoretical analysis.