Combustion of Liquid Fuels Spilled on Water. Prediction of Time to Start of Boilover

The combustion of a liquid fuel floating on water is a problem of interest because of its potential environmental and safety consequences. When a liquid fuel is burning under these conditions, the presence of the water may cause some particular effects due to heat transfer to the water. If the fuel layer is thin, heat losses to the water may cause quenching of the fuel burning. If the fuel layer is sufficiently thick, it is possible for the heat transferred to the water to induce nucleate boiling of the water and, in turn, splashing of the fuel above, a phenomenon referred to as thin-layer boilover. In this work, a one-dimensional, transient, heat transfer model of a burning liquid fuel floating on water is developed, and applied to predict the temperature histories in the fuel and water layers, and the time for the onset of boilover. The model includes in-depth radiation absorption but neglects convection within the liquid, and assumes that boilover occurs when the temperature at the fuel/water interface...