Experimental investigation of burning behavior of a running vehicle

• Main Authors: Hui Zhu, Yunji Gao, Haidong Guo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-12-01
• Series: Case Studies in Thermal Engineering
• Subjects: Automobile fire; Full-scale experiment; Automobile fire spread; Dripping behavior
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214157X20305372

In recent years, automobile fire accidents have occurred frequently. To effectively understand the characteristics of car fire accidents, the burning behaviors of a running sedan vehicle and the fire spread characteristics were studied in this study. The spread progress of automobile fire was recorded by cameras installed in the front, side and inside of the car. The surface temperature and interior temperature of the car were measured by the infrared thermal imager and thermocouples. The engine compartment burned quickly after the fire, and smoke entered the car through the air-conditioning vents. The cab reached flashover after 10 min, and the temperature was over 1000 °C. The plastic materials of the car engine compartment were dripping in flames and the car tires were ignited by flaming droplet after 5 min. The experiment shows that in the case of engine compartment fire, personnel escape and firefighting should be performed within 6 min.