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LARGE SCALE CATASTROPHIC RELEASE OF FLAMMABLE LIQUIDS

Objective

THE WORK WILL PROVIDE DATA AT A REALISTIC PRACTICAL SCALE, THAT CAN BE USED FOR THE VALIDATION AND OR IMPROVMENT OF EXISTING MODELS OF GAS DISPERSION, COMBUSTION AND RADIATION.

COMPREHENSIVE DATA WILL BE COLLECTED DURING EXPERIMENTS USING INSTRUMENTATION WHICH IS ALREADY AVAILABLE AT THE MIDLANDS RESEARCH STATION.
I) THE TEST VESSEL WILL BE INSTRUMENTED WITH PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE SENSORS SO THAT THE CONDITIONS AT THE TIME OF RELEASE ARE KNOW.
II) SAMPLES OF THE FUAL CONTAINED WITHIN THE TEST VESSEL WILL BE ANALYSED SO THAT ITS COMPOSITION IS KNOWN.
III) DURING EXPERIMENTS MEASUREMENTS WILL BE MADE OF THE METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. THESE WILL CONSIST OF WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION, AMBIENT AIR TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE, AND RELATIVE HUMIDITY.
IV) OVERPRESSURES GENERATED BY THE VAPORISATION OF THE RELEASED LIQUID AND, IN IGNITED EXPERIMENTS, SUBSEQUENT COMBUSTION, WILL BE MEASURED BY AN ARRAY OF UP TO 10 PIEZO-ELECTRIC PRESSURE TRANSDUCERS. SIGNALS WILL BE RECORDED ON A MULTICHANNEL TRANSIENT RECORDER UNDER COMPUTER CONTROL, AND AS BACK-UP, ALSO ON A MULTI-TRACK INSTRUMENTATION TAPE RECORDER.
V) ARRAYS OF THERMOCOUPLES WILL BE SET OUT BOTH HORIZONTALLY AND VERTICALLY TO MEASURE THE GRAVITY SLUMPING OF THE (COLD) MATERIAL IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE RELEASE AND SUBSEQUENT COMBUSTION.
VI) DURING IGNITED EXPERIMENTS, WIDE ANGLE RADIOMETERS WILL BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH BOLEX 16MM CINE CAMERAS TO MEASURE THE OVERALL AVERAGE SURFACE EMISSIVE POWER OF THE FLAME AND TO DIRECTLY MEASURE INCIDENT THERMAL RADIATION. UP TO ABOUT 10 INSTRUMENTS WILL BE USED PER TEST. DATA FROM THE INSTRUMENTS WILL BE RECORDED ON A COMPUTER CONTROLLED DATA LOGGER.
VII) IN ADDITION TO THE 16MM CINE FILM RECORDS TAKEN IN CONJONCTION WITH RADIATION MEASUREMENTS, AT LEAST TWO LOCAM 16MM CINE CAMERAS WILL RECORD THE EXPERIMENT AT FRAMING RATES UP TO 500 FRAMES PER SECOND.
VIII) FINALLY, IN THE UNIGNITED EXPERIMENT, AN ARRAY OF UP TO FORTY GAS DETECTORS WILL BE DEPLOYED IN ORDER TO MEASURE THE DISPERSION OF THE RELEASED TWO PHASE MIXTURE.
THE RESEARCH ON LARGE SCALE CATASTROPHIC RELEASES OF FLAMMABLE LIQUIDS WHICH IS SET OUT IN THIS PROPOSAL, IS ONE OF 12 SEPARATE PROPOSALS FROM VARIOUS EUROPEAN ORGANISATIONS, WHICH ARE BEING SUBMITTED AS PART OF A JOINT PROJECT ENTITLED "TWO PHASE RELEASES OF TOXIC AND FLAMMABLE SUBSTANCES - SOURCE TERM AND FIRE EFFECTS", AS EXPLAINED IN THE ATTACHED ANNEX TO THIS PROPOSAL.

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Coordinator

British Gas plc
EU contribution
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Address
Midlands Research Station Wharf Lane
B91 2JW Solihull
United Kingdom

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Total cost
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