Horizontal Seismic Effect on Fire Structure and Behavior

ABSTRACT

Fires and earthquakes can be present simultaneously. One primary scenario comes from strong earthquakes, followed by aftershocks, and sometimes causing post-earthquake fires. Another primary scenario starts with a fire, and followed by an earthquake. This study explored the effects of horizontal earthquakes on the structure and behaviors of free-burning fires. The horizontal seismic condition was simulated using a vibrator, with wood cribs as the fuel. Experimental results indicate that the heat release rate increased with the increased seismic intensity, given that the fires encountering horizontal earthquakes burned faster than the free-burning ones. The HRR rise was a result of the earthquake enhancing the combustion efficiency and the surrounding air entrainment. Additionally, the induced vibration changed the structure of the fire, reduced the flame height and increased the fire-base diameter. Furthermore, this study proposed a HRR and a flame height correlations under horizontal seismic conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Horizontal seismic
• wood crib
• heat release rate
• flame height

Highlights

• The HRR increases with the increased horizontal seismic intensity.

• The increase of the horizontal seismic intensity enlarged the flame diameter.

• The flame height decreases with the horizontal seismic condition.

• A new empirical correlation of HRR with horizontal vibration is proposed.

• A new correlation of flame height with horizontal vibration is proposed.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr. Bo-Chen Huang for conducting experiment, and thank the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China, Taiwan, for financially supporting this research under Contract No. MOST 109-2221-E-992 -045 -.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [MOST 109-2221-E-992-045].