Year
2010
File Attachment
Abstract
Three large open pool fire experiments involving a calorimeter the size of a spent fuel rail cask were conducted at Sandia National Laboratories’ Lurance Canyon Burn Site. These experiments were performed to study the heat transfer between a very large fire and a large cask-like object. In all of the tests, the calorimeter was located above the center of a 7.93m diameter fuel pan, elevated 1m above the fuel pool. The relative pool size and positioning of the calorimeter conformed to the required positioning of a package undergoing certification fire testing. Approximately 2000 gallons of JP-8 aviation fuel were used in each test. The first two tests had relatively light winds and lasted 40 minutes, while the third had stronger winds and consumed the fuel in 25 minutes. Wind speed and direction, calorimeter temperature, fire envelop temperature, vertical gas plume speed, and radiant heat flux near the calorimeter were measured at several locations during each test. Fuel regression rate data was also acquired. The experimental setup and observations pertaining to fire characteristics are described in this paper. Results from three-dimensional fire simulations performed with the Cask Analysis Fire Environment (CAFE) fire code are also presented. Comparisons of the thermal response of the calorimeter to the results obtained from the CAFE simulations are discussed. In general, CAFE underestimated the average internal surface temperature near the top of the calorimeter, while it over estimated the average internal surface temperature on all other sides of the calorimeter. Thus, results showed that CAFE slightly over estimated the overall average temperature of the surface of the calorimeter.