IJET 2024 Vol.16(2): 92-97
DOI: 10.7763/IJET.2024.V16.1261
Computational Analysis of Vertical Subsonic Propane Jet Fires: A Comparative Study of Commercial (COMSOL) and Open Source (FDS) Software
A. Palacios1,*, P. M. Castro-Olivera1, A. Llante-Salas1, V. Foroughi2, and J. Casal2,3,*
1. Chemical, Food and Environmental Department, Universidad de las Américas Puebla. Puebla, México
2. Centre for Technological Risk Studies (CERTEC), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
3. Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Email: adriana.palacios@udlap.mx (A.P.); pedro.castrooa@udlap.mx (P.M.C.O.); adriana.llantess@udlap.mx (A.L.S.) vahid.foroughi@upc.edu (V.F.); joaquim.casal@upc.edu (J.C.)
*Corresponding author
Manuscript received August 17, 2023; revised September 9, 2023; accepted December 26, 2023; published May 14, 2024
Abstract—Jet fires can represent a great potential risk in the industry because they can lead to domino effects. Estimating specific semi-empirical correlations of the behavior of the flame such as thermal radiation, shape, and size can help to minimize or prevent the dangerous effects that a significant accident produced by a jet fire can have, regarding environmental consequences, human and financial losses. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a technological tool that helps enterprises prevent major accidents through the simulation of possible scenarios. This paper compares the data obtained through the simulation of propane jet fires with the open-source Fire Dynamics Simulator software and the commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics v5.6 with the experimental data. The different correlations compared consist of flame length, flame area, and equivalent diameter, the results indicated that the jet fires of 12.75 and 20 mm and mass flows of 0.007, 0.016 and 0.020 kg/s were the ones with better correlations to the experimental data and two software programs employed.
Keywords—computational fluid dynamics, propane jet fires, COMSOL Multiphysics v5.6, fire dynamic simulator
[PDF]
Cite: A. Palacios, P. M. Castro-Olivera, A. Llante-Salas, V. Foroughi, and J. Casal, "Computational Analysis of Vertical Subsonic Propane Jet Fires: A Comparative Study of Commercial (COMSOL) and Open Source (FDS) Software," International Journal of Engineering and Technology vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 92-97, 2024.
