Answers to Selected Problems

1.1 CO2 : 1.798 kg/m3 ; C3 H8 : 1.798 kg/m3 ; C4 H10 : 2.370 kg/m3 .

1.2 3.32 m3 .
1.3 (a) 3.26 mm Hg; (b) 28.41 mm Hg; (c) 61.38 mm Hg.
1.4 n-Hexane: 3.93 mm Hg; n-decane: 1.71 mm Hg.
1.5 iso-Octane: 2.46 mm Hg; n-dodecane: 0.19 mm Hg.
1.6 103.8 kJ/mol.
1.7 159.5 kJ/mol.
1.8 1844 kJ/mol.
1.9 2976 kJ/mol.
1.10 (a)41.3 kJ/g pentane; (b)2.89 kJ/g air.
1.11 12.37 g air/g propane; 12.1 g air/g pentane; 12.27 g air/g decane.
1.12 (a) 6308 C (dissociation would be dominant, preventing such high temperatures
being achieved); (b) 2194 C (dissociation would be significant and keep the tem-
perature below 2000 C); (c) 1373 C (dissociation relatively unimportant).

2.1 320 W/m2 (to 3 d.p., 319.861 W/m2 ).

2.2 Taking 319.861 W/m2 , the temperatures are 60.020 C and 59.983 C, respectively
(effectively both at 60 C). Bi = 0.001 (definitely thermally thin). For the 50 mm
thick barrier, the rate of heat transfer is 318.615 W/m2 , and the temperatures are
60.17 C and 59.83 C. The associated Bi = 0.009, also thermally thin. Conclusion?
Because the thermal conductivity of steel is so high, substantial sections may be
treated as thermally thin. (See Chapter 10.)
2.3 1.71 kW (1.27 kW through the brick, 0.44 kW through the window).
2.4 (a) 0.34 kW through window; (b) 0.79 kW through brickwork; (c) 0.20 kW through
brickwork.
2.5 239 C (it is likely that the brickwork would fail before a steady state is reached).
2.6 963 C (the fibre insulation board would ignite and burn long before a steady state
is reached).
An Introduction to Fire Dynamics, Third Edition. Dougal Drysdale.
2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
528 Answers to Selected Problems

2.7 The numerical solution gives 47.36 C, while the analytical solution is 46.81 C.
2.8 6 seconds.
2.9 202 C.
2.10 (a) 60 C; (b) 50 C; (c) 50 C (approximate values only, obtained by interpolating
data from Figure 2.6(a) and 2.6(b)).
2.11 (a) 50 C; (b) 34 C; (c) 20 C (approximate values only). Compare these results with
those from Problem 2.10.
2.12 The polyurethane foam and the fibre insulation board can be treated as semi-infinite
solids.
2.13 (a) 54 C; (b) 115 C.
2.14 (a) 0.85 kW/m2 ; (b) 1.1 kW/m2 ; (c) 1.8 kW/m2 .
2.15 0.07.
2.16 13.1 kW/m2 .
2.17 10.7 kW/m2 .
2.18 The convective and radiative heat losses respectively are: at 200 C, 3.0 kW and
4.8 kW; at 400 C, 8.2 kW and 19.8 kW; at 600 C, 14.5 kW and 56.0 kW; and at
800 C, 21.7 kW and 127.8 kW.
2.19 649.5 K (taking h = 11 W/m2 K).

3.1 4.35%.
3.2 1614 K.
3.3 (a) 1.7%; (b) 3.4%.
3.4 (a) 43.5%; (b) 31%.
3.5 (a) 31.6% CO2 ; (b) 19.9% CF3 Br. Much less CF3 Br is found to be sufficient because
this species acts as a chemical suppressant.
3.6 At 200 C, L = 1.8% and U = 10.7%: at 400 C, L = 1.5% and U = 12.1%.
3.7 Between 26 C and 6.3 C (assuming limits unchanged from their values at 25 C).
3.8 Between 32 and 235 mm Hg (however, refer to Figure 3.8(a)).
3.9 The diagram will look very similar to Figure 3.11, but the intercepts on the vertical
axis (BUTANE) should be 1.8% and 49%, and the envelope should intersect the
line CA and 1.8% and 8.4%. The envelope should just touch the line CL, where L
corresponds to 87% Nitrogen.
3.10 This question is set to ensure that the reader is satisfied that the empirical results in
Section 3.5 are consistent with Equation (3.9).

4.1 19.9 m and 9.7 m.

4.2 (a) 654 kW (b) 1672 kW
4.3 (a) 0.612 (b) 1.566
4.4 Using Equation 40, (a) 2.06 m: (b) 3.46 m. Using Equation 41, (a) 2.02 m; (b) 3.41 m.
The flame volumes are (a) 0.54 m3 , and (b) 1.39 m3 .
4.5 1.5 Hz predicted for both.
Answers to Selected Problems 529

4.6 From Table 4.2, (a) 72 C; (b) 60 C. From Equation 4.35, (a) 71 C; (b) 60 C. If the
virtual source is taken into account, then these become 70 C and 57 C respectively.
4.7 (a) 240 C; (b) 90 C and 64 C.
4.8 At 4 m, u = 1.18 m/s: at 8 m, u = 0.797 m/s. The response times are 359 s and
1069 s respectively. If the RTI is reduced to 25 m1/2 .s1/2 , the response times are
87.5 s and 267 s respectively.
4.9 0.9 MW if fire directly below detector. Worst situation gives 2.2 MW. If fire close
to one wall or in a corner expect minimum size to be 1.1 MW and 0.55 MW respec-
tively.
4.10 (a) 372 kW; (b) 186 kW; and (c) 93 kW.
4.11 With 5 m centres, (a) 64 kW; (b) 32 kW; and (c) 16 kW. With 2.5 m centres, (a) 32
kW; (b) 16 kW; and (c) 8 kW.
4.12 (a) 73 kg/s; (b) 110 kg/s.
4.13 The values of T are (a) 87 K and (b) 36 K.
4.14 The distance to the receiver is measured from the edge of the pool. Shokri and
Beylers formula gives: (a) 8.1 kW/m2 , and (b) 3.6 kW/m2 . As given, Equation 4.62
gives: (a) 15.1 kW/m2 , and (b) 6.7 kW/m2 . However, the radiation factor () will
be much less than 0.3, according to Figure 4.36.

5.1 Using Hc (n-hexane) = 45 kJ/g (see Table 1.13), rate of heat release = 9.6 MW.
5.2 Rate of heat release = 1.4 MW. Flame height 2.1 m. For radiation calculation, need
H2 O and CO2 concentrations in the flame, to enable Hottells method to be used.
5.3 Assuming that the oil is consumed in 120 minutes, average rate of burning =
20.85 kg/s (0.118 kg/m2 s); average rate of heat release = 939 MW.
5.4 12.5 kW/m2 .
5.5 The limiting regression rates (Table 5.1) give 0.0224 kg/m2 s and 0.083 kg/m2 s
for methanol and heptane, respectively. (Table 5.2 gives 0.017 for methanol). The
ideal values of Tewarson are 0.032 kg/m2 s and 0.093 kg/m2 s respectively. The
latter assume no heat losses, and are therefore slightly higher.
5.6 (a) Ethanol, 0.00253 kg/m2 s; (b) Hexane, 0.0427 kg/m2 s; (c) Benzene,
0.063 kg/m2 s.
5.7 Assuming that the liquids burn at their limiting values, the diameters of the trays are
predicted to be 1.54 m and 0.459 m for alcohol and heptane respectively. According
to Equation (5.11), the corresponding burning rates are too low. Arbitrarily doubling
the diameters gives burning rates closer to the values required.
For ethanol, this gives 825 kW, and will require 18.5 kg of fuel (c. 23 litres). (A
closer estimate could be obtained if required.)
For heptane, this gives 765 kW, and requires 10.2 kg of fuel (c. 14.6 litres). (Note:
combustion will be less than 100% efficient, particularly for the heptane.)
5.8 From Equation (5.32), (a) 4 mm thick, m  = 9 g/m2 s; (b) 2 mm thick, m  < 0. i.e.
it cannot maintain this surface temperature. See Section 6.3.2.

6.1 13 C. Equation (3.3e) can be used to check the effect of temperature on the lower
limit. The effect is not significant.
530 Answers to Selected Problems

6.2 Closed cup flashpoint is less than 32 C.

6.3 56 C.
6.4 2.7% by volume.
6.5 Ignoring radiant heat losses, ti = 4.9 s. Including radiant heat losses (calculated with
Tfabric = 200 C as an average) ti = 11.2 s.
6.6 As in Problem 6.5 ti = 2.2 s and ti = 4.2 s.
6.7 These answers are approximate: (a) 270 s; (b) 100 s. They can be derived by
extracting the relevant data from Table 2.2 (inverse error function) and using a
spreadsheet.

C = 593 K) is 7 kW/m . The depth of the heated layer can
6.8 The radiative loss (320 2

be approximated by (t), andthe temperature gradient immediately below the

surface estimated as (320 20)/ (t). This gives the conductive losses as (a) 8.9
kW/m2 and (b) 14.6 kW/m2 .

7.1 V = 0.57 mm/s (from Section 7.2.2)

7.2 Steady-state surface temperature is 116 C (ignoring re-radiation) so that V = 0.13
mm/s. (Equation 7.7) Re-radiation is significant and should be included in the cal-
culation.
7.3 Steady-state surface temperature is 65.8 C (ignoring re-radiation). Thus, V = 0.07
mm/s.
7.4 From Figure 9.4, 2.75 m (no ceiling); 5.9 m (ceiling 950 mm above crib base); and
>7 m (ceiling 660 mm above crib base).

8.1 The data plotted according to Equation (8.1) lie on a slight curve as Bi < 10 for the
smaller cubes. A slight extrapolation gives r0 0.87 m at 40 C for a slab. The
data are inadequate.
8.2 Long extrapolation required to give r0 3.4 m at 40 C for a slab. Spontaneous
ignition of this material would be most unlikely.

9.1 Take air density at 500 K = 0.70 kg/m3 (Table 11.6), and H x = 13 kJ/g, to give
t = 646 s. (The effect of subsequent cooling is ignored here.)
9.2 This involves the reverse procedure: 9.9% oxygen (by mass) remains.
9.3 (a) 1.8 MW (average kpc for plaster + brick taken for walls and ceiling); (b) 1.9 MW;
(c) 1.2 MW (fibreboard thermally thick); (d) 2.8 MW.

10.1 23.2 minutes (120 s timestep), 23.5 (30 s timestep).

10.2 130 C at 30 minutes. Fire resistance works out at 146 minutes.
10.3 550 C at 14 12 minutes. Maximum temperature 820 C.
10.4 76 C at 30 minutes.
10.5 45 minutes.
10.6 10.25 minutes (with a timestep of 30 s).