Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (2022) 147:11363–11371

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11348-x

A new mathematical method for quantifying flame trajectory length

of inclined buoyant jet fires in crosswind
Qiang Wang1 · Aquan Lu1 · Le Chang1 · Ben Wang1

Received: 26 October 2021 / Accepted: 26 March 2022 / Published online: 18 April 2022
© Crown 2022

Abstract
Outdoor gas pipeline leakage often results in inclined jet fires, often causes the domino incidents in industry and greatly
threatens process safety and environment. In practical conditions, the presence of ambient wind and the behavior of gas
leakage flame will become more complex and threatening. Massive attentions have been paid on gas leakage jet fire just
oriented in vertical or horizontal directions, especially flame morphological scale characteristics. However, few studies
have been conducted about the behavior of flames with different upward inclined angles. In this paper, the flame trajectory
lengths of different upward inclined angles (0 ~ 90°) were studied with the combined effect of crossflow. Experiments are
performed with 3 mm circular nozzle. Propane is used as the fuel in this study and the crosswind speed vary between 0 and
3.48 m ­s−1. A digital video camera is used to record the flame morphology. The experimental results display that the flame
trajectory length increases with increasing inclined angle at low crosswind speeds (u∞ < 0.5 m ­s−1). As the crosswind speed
increases, the flame length decreases with increasing inclined angle. Besides, for small inclination angle (0 ~ 45°) jet fire,
the flame trajectory length increases with the increase in the crosswind speed, while in the case of flame inclination angle
range of 45 ~ 90°, the flame trajectory length decreases with the increase in the crosswind speed. Then correlation models
are developed to predict the flame horizontal length and vertical heights of upward inclined jet fires. And by observing the
flame morphology, a mathematical analysis model based on circular approximation is established to predict the flame tra-
jectory length of inclined buoyant jet fire in crosswind, which is useful in process industry. The present model is suitable to
correlate all the data in this work, as well as those from previous works.

Keywords  Jet fires · Inclined angle · Flame trajectory length · Crosswind

List of symbols Tf Flame temperature (K)
cp Specific heat of air (J ­kg−1 ­K−1) T∞ Ambient temperature (K)
C Fitted coefficient uj Fuel velocity at the nozzle (m ­s−1)
d Nozzle diameter (m) u∞ Crossair velocity (m ­s−1)
Fr∞ Air Froude number ut Initial velocity of the flame (m ­s−1)
Fr∗ Modified Froude number
Greek symbols
g Acceleration of gravity (m ­s−2)
𝜃0 Inclination angle relative to the horizontal
l Radius of the circumference (m)
𝛽 Coefficient of thermal expansion of water
Lf Flame trajectory line length (m)
𝜌j Fuel density (kg ­m−3)
Lx Flame horizontal projection distance (m)
𝜌∞ Air density (kg ­m−3)
Ly Flame vertical height (m)
𝛼 The half of the central angle
Q∗ Dimensionless heat release rate
𝜑 The arc cotangent of Ly and Lx
Q∗mod Modified the dimensionless heat release rate
𝜙 The angle between ut and u∞
R Momentum ratio of fuel jet to crossflow
𝜆 Parameter defined in Eq. (11)
𝜎 Parameter defined in Eq. (16)
* Qiang Wang
wang214@hfut.edu.cn; wang214@ustc.edu.cn
1
School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering,
Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, Anhui, China

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11364
Introduction
Jet fire is a most common type of fire incidents in process
industries, often causes the domino incidents in industry [1,
2] and greatly threats process safety and environment, just as
exemplified in Fig. 1. Fire morphological scale determines
the range of heat transferring to surroundings, which can
ignite nearby combustible materials then triggers a spread of
the incidents [3]. In reality, fire behaviors are often affected
by the specific scenario, such as the wind flow and inclina-
tion. Thus, studying jet fires in various fuel leakage sce-
narios is vital in industry plant and firefighter system design,
as well as risk analysis [4]. Previous studies have extensively
focused on the behavior of jet fires in common scenarios
that jet fires eject in vertical and horizontal direction [5–16].
The classical theories on flame behavior consider mainly
the situation of vertical upward jets. However, the existing
classical theory cannot characterize all the flame behavior
as the flame can be issued in different inclined angles in
practical process industries. In inclined condition, the initial
momentum of the fuel and the flame buoyancy direction
do not coincide, resulting an asymmetric entrainment and
turbulent flow field. This inevitably leads to significant dif-
ference from the flame in vertical upward condition.
Pantokratoras [17] investigated the horizontal projection
distance of the inclined thermally buoyant water jet and pro-
posed a model with a modified Froude number:
Lx
= 6.423(cos𝜃0 )1.154 Fr∗
d diffusion flames under the influence of horizontal
 ; uj is the fuel velocity (m ­s−1), 𝛽 is
uj
where Fr∗ = √ and introduce a momentum ratio R ( R = 𝜌j u2j 𝜌∞ u2∞
gd𝛽(Tf −T∞ )
the coefficient of thermal expansion of water, Tf is the flame
temperature (K), T∞ is the ambient temperature (K), g is the
acceleration of gravity (m ­s−2) and d is the nozzle diameter
(m). Tao et al. [18] and Liu et al. [19] confirmed that the
Fig. 1  Multi-directional jet fire release from leaking flange joint. Pho-
tograph from DNV GL
13
Q. Wang et al.
flame morphological characteristics of turbulent jet fire var-
ied with inclined angles. Wang et al. [20] investigated the
combustion behavior of inclined flames in no wind environ-
ment and empirically correlated the flame geometry with a
modified dimensionless heat release rate Q∗mod = Q∗ cos𝜃0 .
Liu et al. [6, 21] studied the horizontal and vertical down-
ward jet fire in still air and found that the flame geometry
differs significantly from that of the upward jet fire, and
made a comprehensive model to quantify the flame geom-
etry. Liu et  al. [22] found that an increasing downward
inclined angle in a windless environment reduces the hori-
zontal projection length of the flame, but expands the down-
ward distance of the flame. Tao et al. [23] found that the
parameter constant k for the intermittent region and plume
region of the jet flames increases with the increase in
inclined angles and developed a temperature profile model
considering the inclined nozzle. Gao et al. [24] studied the
inclined jet fire in windless environment and found that the
flame trajectory length increases with increasing inclined
angle due to the entrainment decreasing with increasing
inclined angles. Thus, it can be concluded from the above
researches that inclination can lead to a significant change
in flame morphological characteristics of turbulent jet fire.
However, in outdoor environment, the presence of wind
in the wild [25–32] commonly exist. This brings much more
complexity to the combustion behavior of inclined flame as
the interaction of inertia forces from the wind, fuel jet
momentum and upward buoyancy. Kalghatgi [33] concerned
the flame visible shape variation of inclined hydrocarbon jet
(1)
/ crosswind
( ) 1∕2
 )
to characterize the effect from the inertia forces from the
wind. Furthermore, the inclination effect was simply consid-
ered by the difference in correlation coefficient. Kostiuk
et al. [34] and Mejeski et al. [35] studied the flame length
characteristics of weak momentum jet fires ejected vertically
upward under crosswind, found that the flame / length Lf can
be well correlated with the time scale Lf u∞ and d∕u∞ .
Wang et al. [36, 37] validated Kostiuk's flame length model
with vertically ejected flames. Mosiria et al. [38] studied the
characteristics of backward-tilted (angle range: 40–90°) non-
premixed jet fires under uniform crossflow conditions and
classified the flames into three characteristic states of jet-
dominated, transition and crossflow-dominated according to
different momentum ratio R. Lu et al. [39] quantified the
flame geometry parameters such as the horizontal projection
distance and vertical height of the vertical downward jet fires
in crossflow.
The above review of present related researches dem-
onstrates that the inclination and crossflow bring much
complexity to the flame behavior. Only a few numbers of
empirical models with limited applicability and a single
A new mathematical method for quantifying flame trajectory length of inclined buoyant jet fires… 11365

consideration of boundary condition are available. There
still lack a comprehensive model that consider the coupling
effect of the crosswind, inclination and jet momentum. In
this work, a series of experiments are conducted to inves-
tigate the flame morphological characteristics of inclined
buoyant turbulent jet fires under crossflow. A global model
associated with inclination and crossflow effect is proposed
for quantification of flame trajectory length, which is useful
in process industry.
Experimental setup
and the horizontal line. For a given angle, fuel mass flow is
regulated with mass flow controller, and each condition is
repeated at least 3 times.
The flame images are recorded using a CCD camera (25
frames/second, 1920 × 1080 pixels). The original flame
image frames (1000 frames, 40 s) from the decompressed
experimental video are firstly converted to grayscale images
and then to binary images using an image processing pro-
gram [40–42]. The flame probability contours are then
obtained from the average flame binary image, as shown
in Fig. 3.

Figure 2 shows the schematic diagram of the experimen-

tal setup. The crosswind is generated by an axial fan (wind
speed range 0~3.48 m ­s−1) and rectified by a honeycomb
section. A frequency converter is used to adjust the cross-
flow velocity. The real-time wind speed is measured by three
hot-wire anemometer probes (0.2 m apart) at the tunnel exit.
A steel nozzle with a diameter of 3 mm is placed at 0.6 m
from the tunnel exit, and the nozzle height is 0.5 m above the
tunnel bottom to avoid the influence of the complex bound-
ary layer of the upstream airflow. Propane (purity > 99%) is
used as the fuel. The angle of inclination, varying from 0
to 90°, is defined as the angle between the nozzle direction
Cross flow Hotwire
anemometer
Rotating base
Axial fan
Results and discussion
Flame trajectory length characteristics
Figure 4 shows variation in the flame shape with three dif-
ferent inclined angles and different air speed of the crossflow
with uj = 28.31 m ­s−1. It can be visually seen that all the
flame bends gradually toward the crosswind direction and
the bend increases as the wind speed increases. Besides,
it can be observed that the flames at these three inclined
angles show some differences. For the flame ejected upward
(θ0 = 90°), the flame trajectory length sharply decrease and
the flame width become thicker as the crossflow speed
(u∞ = 0 ~ 1.39 m ­s−1) increases. Then, with further increase
in the crossflow speed (u∞ = 1.39~2.5 m ­s−1), the flame tra-
jectory length gradually increases and the main flame body

tends to be nearly parallel to the crossflow direction. As for

0.2m

θ0 the flame ejected at the angle of 45°, the flame just trends
to bend toward the crossflow direction and the flame trajec-
0.5m
0.3m

0.6m
tory length does not present obvious change. Regarding the
condition of θ0 = 0°, the flame is observed to be thick and
Honeycomb short, and bends upward. As the increase in the crossflow
section speed, the flame is gradually elongated.
Figure 5 presents a clear variation trend of flame tra-
Fig. 2  Experimental setup diagram jectory length with different inclined angle and crossflow

Fig. 3  Definition of flame tra-

ne ne
jectory length (Lf), flame height y li y li
length (Ly) and flame horizontal c tor c tor 0.9
je Lf je Lf
length (Lx) Tra gth, Tra gth,
len len 0.8
0.7
0.6
Air cross flow u∞

Air cross flow u∞

Height length, Ly

Height length, Ly

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

Horizontal length, Lx Horizontal length, Lx

13

11366 Q. Wang et al.

Fig. 4  Variation in the flame

Increasing air cross flow u∞
shape with three different 0.5 m
inclined angles and different
air speed of the crossflow for 90°
d = 3 mm, uj = 28.31 m ­s−1,
u∞ = 0 ~ 2.5 m ­s−1 0 m s−1 0.28 m s−1 0.83 m s−1 1.39 m s−1 1.67 m s−1 1.95 m s−1 2.50 m s−1

0.5 m

45°

0 m s−1 0.28 m s−1 0.56 m s−1 0.83 m s−1 1.11 m s−1 1.25 m s−1 1.39 m s−1

0.5 m

0°

0 m s−1 0.28 m s−1 0.56 m s−1 0.70 m s−1 0.83 m s−1 0.97 m s−1 1.11 m s−1

Fig. 5  Flame trajectory length (a) (b)

at different inclined angles with 1.1 1.1
−1 angle (θ ) −1 angle (θ )
the increase in the crossflow uj = 14.15 m s 0 uj = 21.23 m s 0
1.0 90° 1.0 90°
speed
75° 75°
0.9 60°
0.9 60°
45° 45°
0.8 0.8
L f /m

L f /m
30° 30°
0.7 15° 0.7 15°
0° 0°
0.6 0.6

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
−1 −1
u∞ /m s u∞ /m s
(c) (d)
1.1 1.1
uj = 28.31 m/s angle (θ0 ) −1 angle ( θ )
uj = 35.39 m s 0
1.0 90° 1.0 90°
75° 75°
0.9 0.9 60°
60°
45° 45°
0.8 0.8
L f /m

30°
L f /m

30°
0.7 15° 0.7 15°
0° 0°
0.6 0.6

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
−1 −1
u∞ /m s u∞ /m s

(e) 1.1
uj = 42.4 6 m s−1 angle (θ0)
1.0 90°
75°
0.9 60°
45°
0.8
L f /m

30°
0.7 15°
0°
0.6
0.5
0.4

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
−1
u∞ /m s

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A new mathematical method for quantifying flame trajectory length of inclined buoyant jet fires… 11367

speed. As shown in the figure, in condition that the cross- Thermal buoyancy
wind speed is small (u ∞ < 0.5 m ­s −1), the flame length u∞
Fuel momentum

increases with the increase in the inclined angle. And as ut

Cross wind
crosswind speed further increases, flames with differ-
ent inclinations show completely opposite evolutionary
characteristics. In the absence of wind, the entrainment of
buoyancy-controlled jet flame mainly relies on buoyancy uj
θ0
entrainment, and the larger the flame inclination angle, the
smaller the angle between the buoyancy and the jet flame,
and the more difficult the entrainment is. With the decrease Fig. 6  Inclined jet fire mechanism diagram in crossflow
in the inclination angle, the larger the angle between the
jet flow and the buoyancy, the easier the flame entrain-
ment, so that the flame can achieve complete combustion [44] also proposed a model to quantify the horizontal length
in a smaller scale range. With the addition of longitudi- of the flame in crosswind:
nal wind, flame entrainment is gradually dominated by
Lx
crosswind. For a flame with a larger vertical inclination (2a)
( )
∝ f R, Fr∞
angle (60 ~ 90°), the larger the angle between the flame d
and the crosswind, the greater the entrainment induced
( )1∕2
u2∞ 𝜌j u2j
by the ambient wind, so as the wind speed increases, for where Fr∞ = gd  , R = 𝜌∞ u2∞
.
a flame with a large inclination angle, the flame length To sum above, for an inclined jet diffusion flame in cross-
will gradually decrease. In the case of a small inclination wind, the flame horizontal length should be related to the
angle (0 ~ 45°), the angle between the ambient wind and inclination angle:
the flame is small, and the effect on the flame shape is not
large at first, but as the wind speed increases, the ambi- Lx,𝜃0
∝ f (R, Fr∞ , 𝜃0 ) (2b)
ent wind will show a coflow effect; that is, the air flow d
is parallel to the direction of the fuel, the shear mixing
The horizontal length of the inclined jet fire at different
between the fuel and the ambient air becomes more and
angles based on Eq. (2b) is shown in Fig. 7. As shown in the
more difficult. And the coupling effect of the coflow will
figure, the horizontal length at the same angle shows good
reduce the fuel momentum loss in the boundary layer and
normalization, while it shows good regularity for the data
reduce the fuel velocity attenuation. Thus, the flame length
at different angles. Taking the differences of inclination into
increases with the increase in ambient wind speed. There-
account, the correlation for the horizontal length of buoyant
fore, in Fig. 5, the flame trajectory lengths will show a
jet fire at different inclined angles is obtained as:
crossover. Besides, it can also be noted that the maximum
crosswind speed is also related to the inclined angle. The Lx )1∕3
(3)
(
flame with larger inclined angle shows to be blown out at = (14.48 cos 𝜃0 + 8.88) R ⋅ Fr∞
d
larger crosswind speed.

Flame vertical height

Correlation discussion
Kalghatgi [33], Zhang et al. [44] and Wang et al. [45] found
 Flame horizontal projection length that the vertical height of buoyant jet fire in crossflow can
be correlated with the following equation:
As shown in Fig.  6, the flame length scale of turbulent
Ly
buoyant jet fire should depend on the coupling effect of fuel ∝ f (R) (4a)
momentum flux, the crosswind inertia forces and thermal d
buoyancy. In previous work [43], it has been confirmed For inclined jet diffusion jet fire, the vertical height of
that flame length scale of buoyant flame in still air on fuel the flame should be correlated with the inclination angle
momentum flux and thermal buoyancy with dimensionless as follows:
parameter Froude number. Besides, Kalghatgi [33] reported
the dependence of flame length scale on crossflow with Ly,𝜃0
∝ f (R, 𝜃0 ) (4b)
dimensionless parameter momentum ratio R. Zhang et al. d

13

11368 Q. Wang et al.

Fig. 7  Relationship between (a) (b)

horizontal length of flame pro- 450 400
angle (θ 0 )
jection and R ⋅ Fr∞ 400 90° 350
75°
350 C =23.39
C =24.43 75°
0° C =20.57
30° 60° 300 y= x
300 C =18.32
45° 45°
250 2
C =16.05
60°
30° R = 0.98 angle ( θ0 )
Lx 250 C =12.07
75° 15° Lx
0° 200 90°
200 75°
d C = 9.66 d 150 60°
150 90°
45°
100 1/ 3
100 30°
Lx d = C 1 (R · Fr∞) 15°
50 50 0°
Ref. [45]
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
R · Fr∞ (14.48cos θ 0 + 8.88) (R · Fr∞)
1/ 3

Fig. 8  Relationship between the (a) (b) 400

400
flame vertical length and R angle (θ0 )
C =17.6 C =17.37
60° 350
75° 90°
C =18.72
90° 75° 300
300 C =15.19
45°
60°
y= x
C =13.61 45° 250 2 angle (θ0 )
30°
Ly R = 0.97
Ly 30°
200
90°
75°
15°
200 C =10.49
d 15° 0° d 150
60°
45°
C =8.15 30°
0° 100 15°
100 0.55 0°
L y /d = C2 R 50 Ref. [33]
Ref. [45]
0
0 − 50
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
0.55
R (10.37sin θ 0+ 8.07)R

The relationship between the vertical flame height and

R at different angles is plotted in Fig. 8. It is found that
the data at the same angle can be normalized with Eq. (4a),
while there are significant regular differences for different
α
A i r c r o ss f l o w u ∞

inclined angles. The normalized flame vertical height con-

sidering both different angles and R is fitted in the following
equation:
Ly Ly
d
= (10.37 sin 𝜃0 + 8.07)R0.55 (5) ϕ uj
u
φ ut
∞
θ0 Lx
Flame trajectory length

Zhang et al. [44] proposed a trajectory length prediction Fig. 9  Typical flame trajectory diagram of inclined jet fire based on
method of buoyant flame in crosswind based on circular circular arc approximation assumption
approximation:
L
promoted to buoyant jet fire at different inclined angles by
𝜋 u
√ 2
− arccot Ly − arccot u∞
derivation exemplified in Fig. 9.
x j
Lf = Lx2 + Ly2 ( L u
) (6)
𝜋
sin 2
− arccot Ly − arccot u∞ In Fig. 9, ut is the initial velocity of the flame and α is
x j
the half of the central angle, and we can get from the figure:
This model only considers the condition that the fuel
ejected vertical upward (θ0 = 90°) in crosswind. It can be

13
A new mathematical method for quantifying flame trajectory length of inclined buoyant jet fires… 11369

Ly
𝜑 = arccot (7)
Lx

u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0
𝜙 = arccot (8)
uj sin 𝜃0

The central angle α and the radius of the circumference

l can be calculated
𝜋
( )
2𝛼 = 2 −𝜙−𝜑 (9a)
2

u∞ = 0.28 m s−1 u∞ = 1.39 m s−1

√
Lx2 + Ly2
l= (9b)
2 sin 𝛼
Fig. 10  Two different kinds of flame trajectory bending character
Thus, the flame trajectory length Lf (u∞ = 0.28 m ­s−1 and u∞ = 1.39 m ­s−1, θ0 = 60°, uj = 42.46 m ­s−1).

2𝛼
Lf = ∗ 2𝜋l (10a) The flame trajectory length in upward convex style can
2𝜋
be calculated with:
Combining Eqs. (7) , (8), (9a), (9b) and (10a) yields
𝜋 L u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0
Ly u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0 √ 2
− arctan Ly − arctan uj sin 𝜃0
𝜋 x
√ 2
− arccot L − arccot uj sin 𝜃0 Lf = Lx2 + Ly2 ( )
x 𝜋 L u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0
Lf = Lx2 + Ly2 ( ) sin − arctan Ly − arctan
𝜋 L u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0 2 uj sin 𝜃0
sin − arccot Ly − arccot x
2 x uj sin 𝜃0 (14)
(10b)
We know,
When u∞ =∞ and Ly → 0 , the length of all inclined
𝜋
flame should be Lx. arctan k + arccot k = (15)
2
This Eq. (14) can be converted into:
𝜋 L u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0
2
− arccot Ly − arccot uj sin 𝜃0 𝜆
√ √
x
Lf = lim Lx2 + Ly2 ) = lim Lx2 =L
sin 𝜆 x
( Ly u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0
Ly →0 𝜋 𝜆→0
sin − arccot L − arccot L u +u cos 𝜃
2 x uj sin 𝜃0
− arctan Ly + arccot ∞u sin
j 0

(11) 𝜃0
√
x j
Lf = Lx2 + Ly2 ( )
L u +uj cos 𝜃0
𝜋 Ly u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0 sin − arctan Ly + arccot ∞u sin (16)
(12)
𝜃0
where 𝜆= − arccot − arccot x j
2 Lx uj sin 𝜃0 √
−𝜎
√
𝜎
= Lx2 + Ly2 = Lx2 + Ly2
sin(−𝜎) sin 𝜎
When u∞ =0,
L u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0
Ly
where 𝜎 = arctan Ly − arccot uj sin 𝜃0
 . Equation (10b) can
𝜋
− arccot L − 𝜃0 x

also be converted into:

√ 2
(13a)
x
Lf = Lx2 + Ly2 ( )
𝜋 Ly
sin − arccot L − 𝜃0 L u +u cos 𝜃
2 x arctan Ly − arccot ∞u sin
j 0
𝜃0 𝜎
√ √
x j
Lf = Lx2 + Ly2 = Lx2 + Ly2
When 𝜃0 =90◦,
( )
L u +uj cos 𝜃0
sin arctan Ly − arccot ∞u sin sin 𝜎
x 𝜃 j 0

𝜋 Ly (17)
√ 2
− arccot L − 𝜃0
Lx → 0, Lf = lim Lx2 + Ly2 (
x
) = Ly The above equation can be applied under both trace
L
shapes. Therefore, combining the flame vertical height and
Lx →0 𝜋
sin 2
− arccot Ly − 𝜃0
flame horizontal length, a global model of inclined jet fire
x
(13b)
trajectory length in crosswind can be obtained, and the fit-
As observed from Fig. 4, in the process of increasing
ting results are shown in Fig. 11. As shown in the figure, all
wind speed, the flame trajectory presents to be downward
the data in this work, as well as those from previous works,
convex in condition of low crosswind speed. And then
can be fitted well with this model, indicating this model
gradually turn to upward convex when the crosswind
exceed some critical level, as depicted in Fig. 10.

13

11370 Q. Wang et al.

1.8 (2) Correlation models are developed to predict the flame

angle (θ0 )
1.6 90°
horizontal length and vertical heights of upward
inclined jet fires.
Predicted values by Eq.(18)

75°
1.4 60°
45°
(3) A mathematical analysis model is established to predict
1.2 30° the flame trajectory length, which is suitable to cor-
15°
1.0 0° relate all the data in this work, as well as those from
0.8
90° Ref. [45] previous works.
75° 60° 45°
Ref. [38]
0.6 90° Ref. [27]

0.4 Acknowledgements  This work was supported jointly by the National

Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 51976051 and 51606057.
0.2

0.0 Authors contributions  Qiang Wang was involved in conceptualization,

resources, writing, reviewing and editing, supervision, project adminis-
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
tration and funding acquisition. Aquan Lu was responsible for concep-
Experientental values
tualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, data curation,
writing the original draft, validation and visualization. Le Chang took
Fig. 11  Comparison of experimental result and predicted values of part in investigation, writing, reviewing and editing, visualization, and
Eq. (18) validation. Ben Wang participated in writing, reviewing and editing,
visualization and validation.

is suitable for predicting the flame trajectory length of the

inclined jet diffusion flames in crosswind. And the final cor-
relation model is:
Lf
√
[ [
= (14.48 cos 𝜃0 + 8.88)(R ⋅ Fr∞ )1∕3
d
𝜋 (10.37 sin 𝜃0 +8.07)R0.55
− arctan
2 (14.48 cos 𝜃0 +8.88)(R⋅Fr∞ )1∕3
( u∞ +uj cos 𝜃0
𝜋 (10.37 sin 𝜃0 +8.07)R0.55
sin − arctan
2 (14.48 cos 𝜃0 +8.88)(R⋅Fr∞ )1∕3
Conclusions
In this paper, visible flame length scale of inclined buoy-
ant turbulent jet fire in crosswind is experimentally studied.
Variation of horizontal projection length, vertical height and
flame trajectory length is quantified. The main findings are
as follows:
(1) The flame trajectory length gradually increases with
the increase in the inclined angle in condition that
the crosswind speed is small (u∞ < 0.5 m ­s−1). And as
crosswind speed further increases, flames with differ-
ent inclinations show completely opposite evolution-
ary characteristics. The flame trajectory length of flame
at small inclined angles (0 ~ 45°) presents to increase
with the increase in the crosswind speed, while for the
condition that the flame angles range is 45 ~ 90°, the
flame trajectory length is observed to decrease with the
crosswind speed.
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