Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 62 (2019) 103990 Available online 30 October 2019 0950-4230/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Thermal effects of fre on a nearby fuel storage tank Susana N. Espinosa a , Rossana C. Jaca a , Luis A. Godoy b, * a Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Buenos Aires 1400, Neuqu� en, Argentina b Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología, IDIT, CONICET/Universidad Nacional de C� ordoba, C� ordoba, Argentina A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Combustible fuels Fire Finite element modeling Heat transfer Steel tanks ABSTRACT This work presents numerical modeling and quantitative results of the heat transfer process from a burning tank to an adjacent tank. The fame is represented by a solid fame model in which two zones are identifed: a lower clear fame layer with high temperatures and a darker upper layer in which the fame carries soot and smoke. Semi-empirical models are used to estimate the geometry of the fame; other models were also adopted to ac- count for wind effects. The emissive power of each layer of the fame was locally evaluated as a function of temperature. A heat transfer process was followed from the fame to the target tank, at which an energy balance is carried out to include radiation from the fame, radiation from target tank surfaces, and convection to air and to fuel stored in the target tank. The results are presented in the form of temperature distributions on the target tank, which are an ingredient to perform structural analysis. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the infuence of the vertical location of the fame, wind speed, level and temperature of the fuel stored in the target tank, size and distance between tanks. Flame location at ground level, wind speed, higher temperatures of stored fuids, and short separation between tanks are identifed as crucial elements increasing thermal effects on the target tank, but the results are not so much infuenced by tank size. 1. Introduction The available evidence of accidents in fuel and oil production facil- ities indicates that fre and explosions are the most frequent causes of tank failure (Chang and Lin, 2006). Fire accidents may affect a single tank, whereas in other cases an initial failure is part of a domino effect, in which fre propagates from one tank to another (Landucci et al., 2009; Reniers and Cozzani, 2013). Dramatic illustrations of such accidents in the XXI Century occurred in the island of Guam in the Pacifc Ocean in 2002, followed by two notorious cases in 2005: Some 20 tanks were destroyed by fre in Buncefeld, UK (Buncefeld, 2008), and 50 tanks in Texas City, USA. A fre with similar consequences occurred in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, in 2009, in which more than 20 tanks were destroyed (Batista-Abreu and Godoy, 2011, Batista-Abreu and Godoy, 2013; Godoy and Batista-Abreu, 2012). Other smaller and less publicized cases occurred in Gibraltar in 2011; Amuay, Venezuela, in 2012; Río de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2013; Malargüe, Argentina, in 2014; and the list would be considerably increased if cases in Asia were included (see, for example, Mishra et al., 2013). In view of the urgent need to account for fre as part of accident investigations and at a design stage, it is surprising to fnd that research effort has been placed only recently to elucidate the consequences of fre in tank farms. Interest in this feld of research is largely motivated by the need to establish safe distances between tanks, in order to reduce the possibility of fre propagation between tanks; this is addressed at present in codes such as those developed by the National Fire Protection Asso- ciation (NFPA 30, 2012), American Petroleum Institute (API 650, 2010) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-UST, 2015). Modeling this problem requires drawing attention to an adequate representation of the source of fre, the heat transfer process from the fre source to the target structure, and the heat balance at the target structure including the fuid stored and the environment. The outcome of such study is the temperature distribution on the target structure, and this is the starting point to model the mechanical behavior of the target structure. This paper addresses the thermal modeling from fre source to target structure, whereas the structural response is investigated elsewhere. Consider frst the source of fre. Based on observations from real events, it is commonly assumed that fre in a tank farm originates in a tank, which is subsequently identifed as the source tank. Burning of fuel in this tank causes a fame that radiates heat until it reaches a second tank, known as the target tank. One of the better-known families of fre * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: susana.espinosa@fain.uncoma.edu.ar (S.N. Espinosa), rossana.jaca@fain.uncoma.edu.ar (R.C. Jaca), luis.godoy@unc.edu.ar (L.A. Godoy). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jlp https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2019.103990 Received 17 April 2019; Received in revised form 2 October 2019; Accepted 22 October 2019