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Procedia Engineering 45 (2012) 669 – 673

2012 International Symposium on Safety Science and Technology

Application of compressed air foam system in extinguishing oil tank fire
and middle layer effect
FU Xuecheng, BAO Zhiming, CHEN Tao, Xia Jianjun*, ZHANG Xianzhong, ZHANG Jin,
HU Yingnian
Fire Extinguishing Agent Research Division, Tianjin Fire Research Institute of MPS , Nankai District, Tianjin 300381, China

Abstract

Firstly, compressed air foam system (CAFS) was briefly introduced. The difference of foams produced from low expansion foam
extinguishing system and CAFS were compared according to macro parameters and micro parameters. Secondly, thickness of tank shell,
thickness of tank bottom, intensity of water supply and intensity of foam solution supply were determined according to codes. Then oil
tank for model test was designed with the help of Auto Computer Aided Design (Auto CAD) and completed using Q345R steel plates.
Finally, small-scale model tests were carried out to examine extinguishing effect of CAFS onto oil tank fire. Three conclusions were as
follows. The oil tank designed according to codes could endure the flame radiation. CAFS could be applied in extinguishing oil tank fire.
The torch-like flame when the fuel level was high and ball-like flame when the fuel level was lower could be explained using theory of
middle layer effect.

© 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Beijing Institute of
Technology.

Keywords: oil tank fire; small-scale model test; compressed air foam system; Auto Computer Aided Design; middle layer effect.

1. Introduction

In recent years, with the development of economy, the scale of petrochemical corporations become greater and greater,
the amount of petrol stations become bigger and bigger. Petroleum products in oil tanks are volatile, inflammable and
explosive, which may lead to explosion of oil tank and collapse of building in case of fire [1,2]. In 1989, fire accident at
Huangdao was caused by explosion of one oil tank, which consumed 36000 tons of crude oil after burning for 104 hours [3].
In 1990s, six arch-roof oil tanks were shrunken at Jiangxi because of stiffening rings’ irrational design [4]. In 2010, fire
from Dalian Xingang oil pipeline explosion burned out one side of oil tank and destroyed this whole oil tank completely [5].
Therefore, reasonable design of oil tank and study of oil tank fire extinguishing introducing new method are very important
to property safety and social stability.

2. Design and method

2.1. Compressed air foam system

A compressed air foam system (CAFS) is a system used in firefighting to deliver fire retardant foam to extinguish a fire
or protect unburned areas [6,7]. A compressed air foam system is defined as a standard water pumping system that has an

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +8613752230393; fax: +8602223950119

E-mail address: 13752230393@139.com

1877-7058 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.08.220
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entry point where compressed air can be added to a foam solution to generate foam. Typical components of CAFS include
peripheral pump, foam concentrate tank, turbine flow meter, air compressor, mixing chamber and nozzle. The main
difference between CAFS and traditional low expansion extinguishing system is the nozzle. Foams are produced by low
expansion foam extinguishing in negative pressure type as shown in Fig. 1 (a). And foams are produced by CAFS in
positive pressure type as shown in Fig. 1 (b). CAFS is able to deliver a range of useful foam consistencies. Different types
of fire fighting foams could be used in CAFS such as protein foam extinguishing agent (P), alcohol resistant foam
extinguishing agent (AR) and aqueous film forming foam extinguishing agent (AFFF).

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. Schematic of low expansion foam extinguishing system (a) and CAFS (b).

Fire fighting foams are used for fire suppression by cooling effect and smothering effect. Cooling effect takes away the
heat by evaporation of water from the foams. Smothering effect is insulated the fuel and prevents its contact with oxygen by
foam layer. Foams produced from different systems have different extinguishing effects, which relate to macro parameters
and micro parameters. Macro parameters include drainage time and foam expansion. Micro parameters include average size
and size distribution which could be obtained using stereoscopic microscope. As shown in Table 1, the size distribution of
foams from low expansion foam extinguishing system is wider than from CAFS, although these two average sizes are
almost the same. The average time and main size distribution were obtained ten minutes after class A foams were produced.
The narrow size distributions of foams produced by CAFS mean longer drainage time, bigger foam expansion and better
extinguishing effect. The microstructure differences of foams from low expansion foam extinguishing system and from
CAFS are shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

Table 1. The difference of foams produced by low expansion foam extinguishing system and CAFS

Systems Foam expansion Drainage time Average size Main size distribution

Low expansion foam extinguishing system 9.5 349 s 85.3 µm 50-240 µm

CAFs 20.3 789 s 84.6 µm 50-150 µm

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. The different images of foams produced from low expansion foam extinguishing system (a) and CAFS (b) using stereoscopic microscope ( 10).
 FU Xuecheng et al. / Procedia Engineering 45 (2012) 669 – 673 671

(a) (b)

Fig. 3. The different size distributions of foams from low expansion foam extinguishing system (a) and CAFS (b).

2.2. Oil tank designed according to codes

Small-scale model test is the common method to study oil tank fire with advantages of low loss and high validity [8,9].
The height and diameter of oil tank are both 1.7 meters. The other design parameters are determined by Code for Vertical
Cylindrical Welded Steel Oil Tanks and Code of Design for Low Expansion Foam Extinguishing System as shown in Table 2.
The Q345R steel plates with good plasticity and toughness are chosen as the manufacturing materials of oil tank.

Table 2. The parameters of oil tank for small-scale model test

Parameters Reference values

The minimum nominal thickness of tank shell 5 mm

The minimum nominal thickness of tank bottom 6 mm
The supply intensity of fire fighting foam 5.0 L/(min m2)
The sustainable supply time of fire fighting foam 40 min
The supply intensity of cooling water 0.5 L/(s m)
The cooling water supply coverage 5.4 m

AutoCAD is a software application for computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting in both 2D and 3D formats [10,11]. The
simulation view of this oil tank by AutoCAD and actual photo of oil tank are as shown in Fig. 4. In order to detect the
temperature variation of oil sheet, the thermoelectric couples are fixed onto the steel sheet.

(a) (b)

Fig. 4. The CAD simulation view (a) and actual photo (b) of oil tank for small-scale model test.
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3. Experiment data and discussion

3.1. Application of compressed air foam system in extinguishing oil tank fire

There were four steps in the small-scale model test. Firstly, the gasoline oil was injected into the oil tank to 1.4 m height.
Secondly, the fire was ignited and the temperatures were detected and recorded using thermoelectric couples. The CAFS
also started to work after adding water and foam concentrate. Thirdly, the foam began to spray when the fire lasted for 30
seconds. And the switch between low-level jet and up-level jet was controlled by using a switch valve below oil tank bottom.
Then the data were obtained using thermoelectric couples.
As shown in Table 3, this oil tank could endure the temperature higher than 400 °C for 203 s, the highest endure
temperature reached 516 °C. Different type of foam concentrates were applied in the model test including Class A foam,
protein foam (P), fluoroprotein foam (FP), aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) and alcohol-resistant aqueous film-forming
foam (AR-AFFF). CAFS could be applied in extinguishing oil tank fire. Compared with up-level jet, the model test in low-
level jet could avoid the risk of explosion damage. And the extinguishing effect related with type of fire extinguishing foam,
mixing ratio, jet model and foam expansion.

Table 3. The temperature and time of steel sheet

Jet model burning time (>200 °C) burning time (>400 °C) maximum temperature

Up-level jet 429 s 104 s 443 °C

Up-level jet 564 s 203 s 516 °C
Up-level jet 246 s 0 340 °C
Low-level jet 535 s 0 276 °C
Low-level jet 299 s 0 272 °C
Low-level jet 505 s 0 350 °C

3.2. Middle layer effect

In the study of oil tank fire, theory of middle layer effect was presented by Wang Zhixin [12,13]. In this theory, there were
three layers above the oil tank including flame zone, air fuel mixture zone and liquid oil zone. As oil was burning, a
negative pressure zone was formed because of consumption of air above oil tank. Then cold air and incomplete combustion
products went into this middle layer, air fuel mixture zone, which increased the attenuation coefficient and induced fire
fluctuation as shown in Fig. 5. The velocity of combustion would decrease to a stable value gradually because of middle
layer’s heat-shield. Therefore middle layer effect affected the oil tank fire severely.

Fig. 5. The fire fluctuation (1s).

The character of flame was related with diameter of oil tank, property of fuel and height of fuel. When the fuel level was
high, the flame root was near the oil tank roof. Then torch-like flame was formed near the flame root with the help of cold
air entrance as shown in Fig. 6 (a). With the development of combustion process, the fuel level decreased gradually to 80%
of oil tank height. Then hot air and oil vapor would climb upwards along oil tank shell, cold air would enter into flame zone
from the centre of oil tank entrance as shown in Fig. 6 (b), where a ball-like flame was formed. Therefore the theory of
middle layer effect could help to explain the flame phenomena during oil tank fire.
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(a) (b)

Fig. 6. The torch-like flame (a) and ball-like flame (b) in theory and in practice.

4. Conclusions

Three conclusions are as follows. Firstly, the oil tank designed according to codes for small-scale model test could
endure the flame radiation. Secondly, CAFS could be applied in extinguishing oil tank fire. Thirdly, the theory of middle
layer effect could help to explain the torch-like flame and ball-like flame during oil tank fire. The further study should be
paid attention on extinguishing effect using different foam and jet model in detail.

Acknowledgements

This paper is supported by Project of Application Innovation of the Ministry of Public Security No.2011YYCXTJXF146
and Key Projects in the National Science & Technology Pillar Program No.2011BAK03B04. The authors would like to
thank Xue Gang from Tianjin Fire Research Institute of MPS for his helpful discussions.

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