International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, Volume 9, Number 2, p.59-64, 2007 59 ESTIMATION OF HEAT RELEASE RATE FOR GASOLINE POOL FIRES W.K. Chow and S.S. Han Research Centre for Fire Engineering, Department of Building Services Engineering Area of Strength: Fire Safety Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China (Received 20 June 2007; Accepted 16 November 2007) ABSTRACT The heat release rate of liquid pool fires in full-scale burning tests and field tests were commonly adjusted by using different square trays of size 0.5 m. The heat release rates of gasoline pool fires under different ventilation factors were measured by the oxygen consumption method. Experimental data on the heat release rate of those gasoline fires were used to deduce empirical correlations. Results will be reported in this paper. Heat release rate per unit area of liquid gasoline was estimated to be 1670 kWm -2 in a room calorimeter. For tests with a square tray of 0.5 m by 0.5 m, the volume of gasoline was 58 litres for a burning duration of half an hour. The heat release rate was about 400 kW per tray. 1. INTRODUCTION Heat release rates have to be adjusted in full-scale burning tests [1] for different objectives such as investigating the conditions to onset fire whirls [3,4]. Results on the heat release rate per tray are also useful on field tests [2] such as hot smoke tests. The heat release rate will be adjusted by varying the number of square trays. Full-scale burning tests on gasoline pool fires of different sizes were carried out by the principal author [7] in collaboration with the Harbin Engineering University since 2002. The site was located at a remote town Lanxi in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. The calorific value of gasoline tested was 43.7 MJkg -1 . The heat release rate of those pool fires were measured in a room calorimeter with different ventilation arrangements or in an open space under an exhaust hood as shown in Fig. 1. Pool fires were set up with circular pans of diameters 0.2 m, 0.46 m, 0.5 m, 0.6 m, 0.81 m and 1.0 m and square pans of sizes 0.25 m and 0.35 m. Volumes of gasoline burnt varied from 0.1 litre to 23 litres. Correlation expression will be deduced from those experimental data. Results are useful in adjusting the heat release rate in full-scale burning tests. Fig. 1: The room calorimeter of gasoline fire tests Gasoline pool Open space