Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558

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Fire Safety Journal

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Enhancing the phi-meter by incorporating carbon dioxide measurement

Sahand Rasoulipour *, Anthony Parkes, Charles Fleischmann
University of Canterbury, New Zealand

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper describes the development, calibration and experimental application of an enhanced equivalence ratio
Equivalence ratio measurement apparatus, or ‘phi-meter’. The original phi-meter developed by Babrauskas et al. used only an
Phi-meter oxygen analyser and chemically removed the CO2. In this study, an enhanced phi-meter was developed to
Enhanced phi-meter
measure the equivalence ratio from experimental enclosure fires by O2 and CO2 measurements. As with all
Compartment fires
combustion calorimetry, the accuracy of the results increases with the number of species being directly measured
and removing the need for chemical removal of the CO2 is an advantage. This is of practical importance as
scrubbing agent required to remove CO2 from the combustion products requires careful handling and increases
test costs. Moreover, in severely under-ventilated conditions, the production of CO significantly increases, and its
measurement by phi-meter provides real-time validation of the occurrence of complete combustion within the
phi furnace. The original equations derived for the phi-meter incorporated the depletion of oxygen, whereas the
phi-meter equations developed in this paper incorporate O2 and CO2 measurements. The equivalence ratios
measured in compartment fires for heptane, LPG and timber crib fuels ranging from 0.2 for oxygen-rich to 3.0 for
fuel-rich conditions are found to agree with theoretical values.

1. Introduction
The ventilation geometry of an enclosure during a fire is one of the
most important variables governing the behaviour of a compartment
fire. The amount of oxygen available for combustion influences the
consequent production of combustion gases such as total hydrocarbon
content (THC), CO and CO2.
The importance of ventilation on the burning rate of fuel and
compartment temperature was summarised and published by Kawagoe
[1] following a decade of experimental work. Kawagoe established the
correlation between the fuel (waste timber) burning rate to the venti­
√̅̅̅̅̅̅
lation factor of Av Hv for a cubical shape compartment where the
compartment gases are well-mixed. The cubical shape compartment and
fuel to compartment surface area ratio were chosen to reasonably expect
a uniform compartment temperature. Kawagoe correlation for the
burning rate of timber in a ventilation-controlled compartment is:
√̅̅̅̅̅̅ √̅̅̅̅̅̅
ṁp = 0.092Av Hv ∼ 0.1Av Hv (1)
Kawagoe’s study were complemented by numerous other researches
that further validated the findings and provided refinements. The
burning rate correlation is found to have a remarkable agreement
√̅̅̅̅̅̅
considering the flow rate of incoming air being ṁa = 0.52Av Hv , found
in the literature using the vent flow equations [2]. This is considering the
stoichiometric burning condition with all incoming oxygen being
consumed. The stoichiometric fuel/oxygen ratio is the ratio of fuel to
oxygen for complete combustion, which is in agreement with ṁp
(introduced by Kawagoe) divided by ṁa [3].
However, the incoming air correlation has incorporated multiple
simplifying assumptions such as neglecting the fuel pyrolysis rate, i.e.
airflow inlet equals to the gas flow outlet ṁa = ṁg . This appears to be an
assumption that is not valid for severely underventilated conditions
where the pyrolysis rate is comparable to the air inflow rate. Delichat­
sios et al. further developed the incoming air correlation and provided a
more general relation for cases where the fuel pyrolysis rate is not
negligible [4].
√̅̅̅̅̅̅
ṁa = 0.5Av Hv − 0.5ṁp (2)
In general, the ratio of pyrolysis rate to available oxygen is essential
in understanding the burning regime to know whether the fire is fuel
controlled or ventilation controlled, e.g., fuel-lean or fuel-rich combus­
tion. Moreover, multiple studies have shown that combustion yields are
dependent on the fuel to oxygen ratio [5–7].
The equivalence ratio is a parameter that is becoming increasingly

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Sahand.Rasoulipour@pg.canterbury.ac.nz (S. Rasoulipour), Tonyp@pfitsconsultancy.co.nz (A. Parkes), Charles.Fleischmann@canterbury.ac.nz
(C. Fleischmann).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2022.103558
Received 8 November 2021; Received in revised form 22 December 2021; Accepted 24 February 2022
Available online 2 March 2022
0379-7112/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Rasoulipour et al. Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558

a
Nomenclature listing V̇ (O2) Volumetric flow rate of the added oxygen stream (m3/s)
Δhv Vertical distance between the centre of vents in the
β Correction factor (for volume flow through mass flow enclosure with two openings (m)
controller) X(N2) Nitrogen mole fraction
ṅ0(N2) Ambient nitrogen molar flow rate (mole/s) ΔHC Heat of combustion (kJ/kg)
∅ Equivalence ratio 0
X(N2) Nitrogen mole fraction at ambient air i.e. ~ 0.79
ṅ(N2) Nitrogen molar flow rate (mole/s) ṁa Mass flow rate of incoming air (kg/s)
∅aO2 Equivalence ratio corresponding to the added oxygen by X(N2) Oxygen mole fraction during the experiment measured at
the phi-meter oxygenator O2 analyser
P Pressure (Pa) ṁg Mass flow rate of gases outflow (kg/s)
ρa Air density at ambient conditions 0
X(O2) Oxygen mole fraction in ambient air (without extra
PaO2 Pressure of the added oxygen stream (Pa)
A Vent area of one opening in the enclosure with two oxygen)
identical openings (m2 ) ṁp Pyrolysis rate (kg/s)
ΔPa Pressure difference at compartment circular vent (Pa) X(CO2) Carbon dioxide mole fraction during the experiment
Av Compartment vent area (m2 ) measured at CO2 analyser
ṅr(O2) Stoichiometric oxygen molar flow rate (mole/s)
Q̇ Heat release rate (kW)
0
Cd Ventilation coefficient for orifice X(CO2) Carbon dioxide mole fraction at ambient air i.e. ~ 0
r Stoichiometric ratio of the fuel/air ṅa(O2) Molar flow rate of the added oxygen by the phi-meter
CCO Constant pressure specific heat of CO oxygenator (mole/s)
R Ideal gas law constant, i.e.8.205 × 10− 5 X(CO) Carbon monoxide mole fraction during the experiment
(m3 .atm.K− 1 .mol− 1 ) measured at CO analyser
CCO2 Constant pressure specific heat of CO2 ṅ0(O2) Ambient oxygen molar flow rate (mole/s)
T Temperature (K) 0
X(CO) Carbon monoxide mole fraction at ambient air i.e. ~ 0
CN2 Constant pressure specific heat of N2
a ṅ(O2) Oxygen molar flow rate at oxygen analyser of the phi-
TO2 Pressure of the added oxygen stream (K)
meter (mole/s)
CO2 Constant pressure specific heat of O2 i
X(O2) Oxygen mole fraction in the outlet with the oxygen added
V̇ Volumetric flow rate of the total sample flow (m3/s)
Hv Height of the opening in enclosures with a single opening by phi-meter oxygenator when no fuel sample is
(m) introduced

popular to describe the ventilation conditions during a fire. The equiv­
alence ratio (or phi) is the fuel/oxygen ratio compared with the stoi­
chiometric fuel/oxygen ratio. In experimental studies, the pyrolysis rate
can be measured using fuel mass loss rate measurements; however,
measuring the real-time air inflow rate to the compartment is often
difficult [8]. Developing methods to measure the equivalence ratio
continuously is of importance and has been subject to multiple studies in
the past. These studies were primarily aimed to quantify CO yields as the
deadliest by-product of incomplete combustion and correlate it to the
equivalence ratio [6,7].
In 1994, Babrauskas et al. introduced a simple, fuel independent
instrument for monitoring equivalence ratio, called phi-meter [9]. The
phi-meter is further developed and used by several researchers to
correlate smoke species to the equivalence ratio [10–14].
The formula for the equivalence ratio is presented in equation (3).
Alternatively, the airflow rate can be substituted by oxygen flow rate in
eq. (3) in which the oxygen measurement in the equivalence ratio for­
mula is the oxygen of the oxidiser, e.g. air and not the oxygen atoms that
might be present in the fuel.
( ) ( )
/ /
ṁfuel
ṁa sample
ṁfuel
ṁa sample
∅=( ) = (3)
r
/
ṁfuel ṁ
a stoichiometry
certain circumstances, smoke species can result in an explosion or
explosion-like events [15].
The equivalence ratio can be measured locally by taking the sample
mixture from a sampling probe. Hence, the term “local equivalence
ratio” is often used as an equivalent term. In compartment fire studies,
generally, when the gases are well-mixed within the compartment, the
interest is to measure the average equivalence ratio within the entire
compartment using multiple sampling points or by taking sample at the
compartment exhaust vent(s) where the sample could be well-mixed.
The equivalence ratio measured for a control volume such as the
entire compartment is known as the Global Equivalence Ratio (GER).
The concept of GER was discussed in detail by Pitts [10], and its
application for predicting the formation of CO. GER is a convenient way
to estimate the ventilation condition of a compartment fire, i.e. ratio of
the fuel supply rate to air inflow rate, divided by the stoichiometric ratio
of the fuel, r:
Q̇
∅= (4)
rΔHc ṁa
This paper describes the development of the enhanced phi-meter
device for measuring the equivalence ratio parameter in ongoing
compartment fire experiments at the University of Canterbury. The
enhanced phi-meter is used for LPG, heptane and timber crib compart­
ment fires. As described in later sections, the measured equivalence ratio

Thus, φ < 1 implies an oxygen-rich condition, which means that
sufficient oxygen is theoretically available for complete combustion and
φ > 1 implies a fuel-rich situation and when there is not enough oxygen
available for complete combustion. Subsequently, reduced ventilation
within the experimental enclosure results in increased fuel, i.e., un­
burned pyrolysates. The smoke species including unburned pyrolysates,
products of combustion and air entrainment. Croft has shown that under
is compared and agreed with the theoretical GER calculated for heptane
pool fires and LPG fires.
2. The phi-meter concept
As presented by Babrauskas [9] and Lönnermark [12], the original
phi-meter is a simple method that makes it a versatile portable device for

2
S. Rasoulipour et al.
measuring the equivalence ratio. The concept of the phi-meter is to take
a sample of the combustion gases from the enclosure, introduce oxygen
(in a measured flow rate) whilst at the same time stimulating a com­
bustion process. These combustion products, along with the introduced
oxygen, burns all the remaining combustion gases and transform the
carbon atoms in the incomplete combustion products into CO2 and all of
the hydrogen atoms to H2O. The phi-meter is proposed to measure only
the oxygen species with CO and soot being re-combusted to CO2 in the
combustion process, and CO2 being removed by Ascarite chemical sor­
bent (active ingredient NaOH). H2O is removed by either Drierite
desiccant (active ingredient CaSO4) and/or magnesium perchlorate. To
stimulate combustion, the process must provide for two situations; the
oxygen-rich/fuel-lean case and the fuel-rich/oxygen lean case. In the
fuel-lean case ( ∅ < 1), sufficient oxygen is present in the sample mixture
such that complete combustion can occur. However, sufficient oxygen is
not present for the fuel-rich case (∅ > 1), and complete combustion will
not occur without assistance. In this instance, a measured flow stream of
oxygen is introduced into the sample flow to ensure that complete
combustion occurs. The combustion gases are then passed through a
furnace with a heated catalyst which combusts the gas stream (complete
combustion), leaving only CO2, H2O and O2 as combustion products. The
CO2 and H2O are removed, leaving only oxygen to be analysed. There­
fore, the equivalence ratio is determined by measuring the oxygen
concentration:
a. for the ambient air under the ambient condition with no additional
oxygen added, and
b. when extra oxygen is added with no fuel present, and
c. for the sampled combustion products with oxygen added
The sorbent media used to remove the CO2 and H2O in the original
phi-meter setup is essential in the process while it is expensive, prone to
clog, and requires careful handling as a hazardous substance. Therefore,
it is considered beneficial to measure additional species when in­
strumentations are available to simplify the filtration process and
improve accuracy. In this study, an enhanced phi-meter is used having
CO2 and CO analysers with the expectation to have easier equivalence
ratio measurements and additional accuracy. The analysers used in this
study cannot handle wet gas mixtures; so, the O2, CO2 and CO are
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the enhanced phi-meter setup.
3
Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558
measured on a dry basis with only H2O removed from the sample stream
using (Drierite) desiccant.
Given that the equivalence ratio relationship was based upon the
original phi-meter in which only oxygen was measured, the additional
sampling of CO2 requires a re-evaluation of the equivalence ratio
equations. The following relationship has been derived in Appendix A to
account for the additional species, i.e. CO2.
0 i 0 0
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) 1 Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2)
∅=1− +
0
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) 0
Ẋ (O2) 1−
0
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2)
(5)
3. Construction of the enhanced phi-meter
A schematic diagram of the enhanced phi-meter is shown in Fig. 1.
The phi-meter was developed as part of subsequent compartment fire
researches to measure the global equivalence ratio based on equation (5)
as derived in Appendix A. The phi-meter was initially used in pool fire
experiments within a compartment with a single rectangular opening
[16]. Following the first set of experiments, the phi-meter is upgraded
and reused in a compartment with two circular openings with LPG and
MDF crib fuel fires.
The phi-meter initially used an electric quartz tube furnace through
which the combustion gases mixed with an additional stream of oxygen
and re-combusted. The reaction species that exhausted the furnace were
then measured and analysed. The quartz tube was heated to 800 ◦ C and
filled with metal oxide as the catalyst.
Using a quartz tube as the combustion reactor in the furnace had a
few problems, primarily breakages. The steel screw fittings at each end
of the quartz tube required careful attention to ensure an airtight seal
without the risk of over-tightening and breaking the quartz. Therefore,
following completion the pool fire tests series, a new phi-meter furnace
was designed with an Inconel (nickel-chrome alloy) tube as the com­
bustion chamber. The Inconel furnace was a 450 mm long, 50 mm
diameter tube with stainless steel flanges welded to both ends, which
seals tightly with high-temperature graphite gaskets sandwiched be­
tween the flanges at each end. The Inconel tube was placed within a
Thermcraft™ vertical split furnace with a temperature controller that
S. Rasoulipour et al.
kept the furnace at 900 ◦ C. Approximately three-quarters of the Inconel
tube was filled with Nickle-Chrome wires of 200 mm long as the catalyst
that were held upright over a steel mesh inside the furnace.
The mixture of sample and added oxygen was drawn through the phi-
meter by a 12 V DC pump downstream of the furnace. The sample taken
from the compartment fire was transported to the furnace through a
heated sample line. The heated sample line initially used (for the pool
fire tests) was made of a copper tube within a 20 mm diameter stainless
steel tube sealed jacket, heat traced with 150 ◦ C glycerine controlled by
a thermocouple placed in the glycerine tank. After the heptane pool fire
tests, the heated sample lines were upgraded to electrically heated ones
maintained at 190 ◦ C with a 4 mm diameter high temperature braided
stainless steel inner tube for ease of operation. The increased tempera­
ture of the heated sample lines helped minimise the sample line block­
ages due to condensations of smoke products.
In order to achieve complete combustion in the furnace, a sufficient
supply of oxygen was provided to the furnace tube on the sampling side.
Before the sample gas entered the furnace, it was mixed with additional
oxygen at the inlet to the tube furnace. The oxygen flow was controlled
to 1.5 L/min using a mass flow controller.
After combustion within the furnace, the sample passed through a 7
μm soot filter to remove excess carbon particles. The filter was routinely
checked during the experiments, and it was found clean from soot after
each test. This indicated that the furnace burned all carbon atoms in the
fuel to CO2. The sample was then passed through a cold trap, sampling
pump, Drierite desiccant, before passing through the mass flow
controller and entering the O2, CO2 and CO analysers.
The mass flow controller downstream of the furnace was set to 3.0 L/
min for the experiments, i.e., the sample flow rate from the compartment
was expected to be 1.5 L/min plus 1.5 L/min of additional oxygen. The
mass flow rates were chosen based on the expectations of an equivalence
ratio range between 0 and 3. As the oxygen flow was set to 50% of the
total flow, the oxygen analyser was required to have a measuring range
between 0% and 61%. The analysers used was a Siemens Oxymat-6 that
measures oxygen using the paramagnetic alternating pressure method
and Siemens Ultramat-6, which is a Non-Dispersive Infra-Red (NDIR)
analyser for measuring CO2 and CO.
4. Phi-meter calibration
Several experiments were performed in order to calibrate and eval­
uate the performance of the phi-meter. Propane (C3H8) and methane
(CH4) were used as the combustion gas sources. Calibration experiments
were carried out, initially by sampling varying proportions of propane/
air mixtures and secondly by sampling varying proportions of methane/
air mixtures. A controlled flow of propane or methane was introduced
into the sample line using a mass flow controller and mixed with a fixed
airflow before entering the furnace. At the furnace, a fixed oxygen flow
Fig. 2. Measured and calculated equivalence ratio (ER) values from calibration experiments on the combustion of variable propane/air and methane/air mixtures in
time. The phi-meter used for propane/air mixture was of a quartz tube (in lower temperature) which was upgraded to an Inconel tube (with higher temperature) for
the methane/air mixture calibration.
4
Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558
was introduced (oxygenator) to combust all the fuel. The total sample
gas flow and the added oxygen stream were continuously measured and
logged. The theoretical equivalence ratio of the sample mixture was
calculated from the reaction formula for propane/air and methane/air
mixtures and compared to phi-meter measurements. The results detailed
in Fig. 2 show that a good agreement was achieved between the actual
equivalence ratio calculated based on air to fuel concentrations and the
equivalence ratios predicted by the phi-meter.
The equivalence ratio was varied between 0.5 and 3.0 for propane/
air and methane/air mixtures. For the propane/air calibration tests, the
quartz furnace tube at 800 ◦ C was used, and flashes within the quartz
furnace tube indicated combustion and were prevalent in the higher air-
fuel mixtures. The experiments involving higher equivalence ratios were
noisy. The experimental equivalence ratio of lower than 0.5 deviated
from the calculated phi-meter values. This was due to the fluctuations in
the sampling flow rate due to controlling small gas flows with a mass
flow controller having an extensive flow range. This was fixed using
mass flow controllers of lower range (10 L/min) in the upgraded phi-
meter with Inconel furnace at 900 ◦ C that was used for the methane
calibration test and the experiments. Hence the results are improved for
lower equivalence ratios.
4.1. Response time
During the phi-meter calibration tests, there was a delay at each
point the air-fuel mixture was modified. This delay is observable in Fig. 2
as a lag between the measured equivalence ratio curve and the theo­
retical value. This lag was due to the time taken for the sample to travel
from the far end of the heated sampling line through the combustion
reactor, filtration process and analysis. This delay time was investigated
by introducing an amount of nitrogen into the sample line and deter­
mining the time taken for the analysers to respond. The delay time was
calculated to be approximately 40 s. This is the minimum delay time
observable for calibration tests regardless of the fuel for determined
sampling flow rate. The delay time is required to be of sufficient length
such that complete combustion occurs within the furnace. In other
words, the sampling flow rate and pumping pressure cannot be too high
to prevent the complete combustion from taking place in the furnace. In
the flow rate used in these experiments, the CO concentration at the
analyser was nearly zero (i.e., <500 ppm for all tested fuels), confirming
that complete combustion occurred in the furnace.
The response of the phi-meter was verified before each experiment
and found to be consistent. The equivalence ratio measurements were
shifted to address the effect of the response time.
5. Pool fire experiments and results
The enhanced phi-meter was initially used in a series of pool fire
S. Rasoulipour et al. Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558

experiments [16] in a 2.4 m wide by 3.6 m long by 1.2 m high Delichatsios et al. correlation for air inflow rate as below.
compartment. The experiments were conducted with multiple ventila­ √̅̅̅̅̅̅ /
tion configurations, two of which are presented in this paper: ṁa = 0.5Av Hv − 0.5ṁT = 0.5 × 0.186 − 0.5 × 0.013 = 0.087 kg s

√̅̅̅̅̅̅
• Vent A: Small window opening of 0.4 m(W) × 0.6 m(H); Av Hv =
0.186
• Vent B: Front opening with soffit obstruction of 2.4 m(W) × 1.0 m
√̅̅̅̅̅̅
(H); Av Hv = 2.4
Three heptane pool fire pans, each 200 mm × 200 mm square, were
placed in the compartment’s rear, front and centre. The pans were
located at 3.0 m, 0.6 m and 1.8 m from the front of the compartment.
The fuel level was kept constant during the experiment using a constant
head tank system [16]. The mass loss of each pan was recorded on
separate load cell platforms under each fuel tank.
The phi-meter apparatus developed for this experimental study
aimed to evaluate the species at the exit plane of the compartment as the
combustion gases were expected to be well mixed at this point. A copper
tube sampling port was installed approximately 25 mm below the top of
the centre of the ventilation geometry. This is also consistent with ASTM
603-98a [17], which notes that additional measurements of carbon
monoxide and carbon dioxide in a test room may present helpful in­
formation if sampled 25 mm below the top of the doorway.
The equivalence ratios measured for the two presented heptane pool
fires range from 0.2 for oxygen-rich condition to 2.3 for fuel-rich con­
dition. The equivalence ratios measured by the phi-meter agree with the
theoretical values of equivalence ratio determined by measured mass
loss rate and theoretical values of air inflow. The pool fire experimental
matrix and summarised results are provided in Table 1.
The equivalence ratio measurements for heptane pool fire experi­
ments using phi-meter in the compartment described above is plotted in
Fig. 3. The results show that a quasi-steady state is reached after 20 min
for the under-ventilated fire (compartment with Vent A), and equiva­
lence ratio, mass loss rate and heat release rate are nearly constant after
this time. For consistency in reporting the results, the average mass loss
rate and heat release rate are reported for the last 25 min of the ex­
periments. As the equivalence ratio for the heptane pool fire experiment
in the compartment with vent A verged toward a quasi-steady average
value, there were times at which the equivalence ratio spiked (Fig. 3).
These spikes were identified during the experiments from the increase
the furnace temperature, indicating a reduction in flow due to a tem­
porary blockage of the sample line or in the catalyst.
The calculated equivalence ratios are determined using the theo­
retical air flow rate entering the compartment found from the vent flow
correlation. Here, the correlation developed by Delichatsios et al. [4] is
used, i.e., equation (2) of this paper. This equation provides a more
general relationship for cases where the fuel pyrolysis rate is not
negligible.
For the experiment with vent A, the average mass loss rate deter­
mined for the last 25 min is found to be 0.013 kg/s, averaging all three
pans. The air inflow rate is found to be 0.087 kg/s considering the py­
rolysis rate being equal to the mass loss rate measured and using
The theoretical equivalence ratio is found 2.26 using eq. (3) as
below:
( )
/
ṁfuel ṁ
oxygen 0.013 0.087
/
∅=( ) sample = = 2.26
/ 0.066
ṁfuel
ṁoxygen
stoichiometry
Therefore, the theoretical equivalence ratio agrees with the phi-
meter measurement. As the conditions are under-ventilated ( ∅ > 1),
all oxygen entering the compartment can be assumed to be consumed.
Hence, the expected heat release rate that corresponds to the con­
sumption of all the oxygen inflow can be found using the heat release per
mass of air consumed as 3000 kJ/kg [18]:
( ) ( )
kg kJ
Q̇(kW) = ṁa × 3, 000 = 0.087 × 3, 000 = 261 kW
s kg
This theoretical heat release rate is significantly (nearly 50%) lower
than the heat release rate measured by the oxygen depletion method,
plotted in Fig. 4. This is interpreted as conditions in the compartment
being oxygen lean, leading to nearly 50% of the energy release occurring
outside of the compartment. This is in line with the observed ejecting
flame through the compartment vent. The external flame dimensions are
not measured here.
Measuring the fuel pyrolysis rate in under-ventilated compartment
fire that governs the characteristics of external flame is of importance
and is a subject of ongoing research as it allows to optimise the spandrels
of multi-storey buildings. Phi-meter used as part of this research
demonstrated to be a helpful instrument to correlate the equivalence
ratio of compartment fires to external flame dimension ejecting the
compartment openings [19].
The heptane fuel experiment carried out with the Type B vent led to a
well-ventilated fire condition. The expected equivalence ratio was
∅ < 1, which was correctly found by the phi-meter as plotted in Fig. 3.
Given the well-ventilated condition, the heat release rate can be deter­
mined by the pyrolysis rate, and no external flame is expected, which
agrees with the observations. The average mass loss rate and heat
release rate found by measurements in the last 25 min of the experi­
ments were respectively 0.010 kg/s and 444 kW. The mass loss rate and
heat release rate agree with each other for well-ventilated combustion
considering the heat of combustion of 45 MJ/kg for heptane, i.e.:
Q̇ = ΔHc × ṁp = 45, 000 × 0.010 = 450 ​ kW
6. LPG fire experiments and results
The enhanced phi-meter was upgraded after the heptane pool fire
experiments to overcome the identified deficiencies. The phi-meter
furnace upgraded to have an Inconel furnace heated to 900 ◦ C, and
Nichrome catalyst is used. The upgraded phi-meter used for liquified

Table 1
Summary of experiments with phi-meter measurements.
Pan Location Vent Ventilation Coefficient Average Mass Loss Average Heat Release Phi-meter Theoretical Visible External
√̅̅̅̅̅̅
(s) Typea (Av Hv ) Rate (kg/s)b Rate (kW) b Equivalence Ratio c
Equivalence Ratio d
Flaming

Rear Centre Vent A 0.186 0.013 464 2.30 2.26 Yes

Front Vent B 2.4 0.010 420 0.20 0.23 No
a
Vent Type A is the front window opening [0.4 m (W) × 0.6 m (H)], and Vent Type B is the front side opening with soffit obstruction [2.4 m (W) × 1.0 m (H)].
b
Average mass loss rate and average heat release rates are measured at the last 25 min (1500 s) of the experiments in which the conditions have reached a quasi-
steady state, and mass loss rate and heat release rate are nearly constant.
c
Equivalence ratio measured by the phi-meter using equation (5) as developed in Appendix A.
d
Theoretical equivalence ratio is calculated using the measured mass loss rate (from the experiment), estimating the incoming airflow by equation (2) and stoi­
chiometric mass ratio for heptane of 0.066.

5
S. Rasoulipour et al.
Fig. 3. Equivalence ratio (ER) measured by the phi-meter for heptane pool fire experiments over time, and comparison to the calculated equivalence ratio for each
experiment using eq. (2) and measured fuel mass loss rate.
Fig. 4. Heat release rate (HRR) measured by oxygen depletion method for heptane pool fire experiments over time, and average fuel mass loss rate (MLR) of each
experiment for the last 25 min.
petroleum gas (LPG) and timber crib fuel experiments in another
compartment. The compartment and experiment setup used for LPG and
timber crib experiments is a rectilinear 1.5 m (L) × 1.0 m (W) × 1.0 m
(H) box which is fully detailed in the reference [20]. Ventilation to the
compartment was provided through two 100 mm diameter circular
openings, i.e., bottom vent and top vent. The distance between the
centre of the vents is 650 mm. A pressure transducer (0–27 Pa range) is
placed in the same barometric plane (i.e., same height) of the centre of
the bottom opening and the other at the same height of the centre of the
top opening to measure the vent flows. Fig. 5 is an isometric sketch of the
compartment used for LPG (and MDF-crib) tests.
A theoretical vent flow assessment for determining the mass flow
rate of air to the under-ventilated fire compartment with two vents are
provided in Ref. [20]. The theoretical assessment demonstrated that this
study’s under-ventilated compartment fires are expected to have a
unidirectional inward airflow from the bottom vent and unidirectional
outward smoke exhaust from the top vent in quasi-steady fire condi­
tions. This study also characterised the air inflow rate by introducing a
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
novel ventilation parameter A Δhv in which A is the ventilation area of
6
Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558
one opening (out of two identical vents), and Δhv is the vertical distance
between the centre of the circular vents, i.e., 0.65 m in these experi­
ments. As found theoretically and verified experimentally in Ref. [20],
the air inflow rate through the bottom vent of this compartment is per
eq. (6).
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
ṁa = 1.26A Δhv (6)
These experiments consist of an LPG gas burner located at the rear of
the compartment on the floor with controlled gas fuel mass flow. The
LPG used consisted of 60% propane (C3H8) and 40% butane (C4H10).
The mass flow of LPG is set to generate heat release rates between 5 kW
and 45 kW with 5 kW intervals. Each fuel mass flow rate (i.e., burning
rate) was maintained for a minimum of 10 min to achieve a quasi-steady
condition within the compartment. The vapour density of LPG is
considered to be 1.898 g/L [21], and its heat of combustion is consid­
ered 46.1 MJ/kg [22]. The highest LPG heat release rate tested in the
compartment with 100 mm diameter openings was 45 kW (i.e., 30.8
L/min fuel flow rate) because the flame self-extinguished for higher fuel
flow rates.
S. Rasoulipour et al.
Fig. 5. Compartment detailed drawing with locations of openings, thermocouple trees, pressure transducer locations and sampling tubes (all dimensions are
in millimetre).
The enhanced phi-meter measured the averaged equivalence ratio of
the combustion by taking sample at high level of the compartment
through a U-shape sampling tube with 2 mm holes in equal spacing. The
measured equivalence ratio is compared with a theoretically estimated
equivalence ratios as shown in Fig. 6 for the compartment with 100 mm
opening diameters. In Fig. 6, two different methods are used to calculate
the equivalence ratio compared to the measured equivalence ratio by
Fig. 6. Equivalence ratio (ER) measured by the enhances phi-meter for LPG gas
fire experiments in the compartment with two 100 mm diameter circular
openings compared to the calculated ER. The calculated ER is one time found
using eq. (6) to estimate air inflow rate (red dashed line); and another time
using eq. (7) and pressure measurements and plotted in 30 s moving average
(blue line). In both theoretically calculated ERs, the air inflow rate is divided by
the measured fuel mass flow rate and stoichiometric ER for LPG is used to
determine the calculated ER. (For interpretation of the references to colour in
this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
7
Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558
phi-meter. The calculated equivalence ratio is once determined using eq.
(3) in which ṁf is the measured LPG mass flow rate, ṁa is found using eq.
(6) and fuel/air stoichiometric ratio being 0.059 for LPG. This is the
averaged equivalence ratio for each fuel flow rate (red dashed line in
Fig. 6).
Moreover, the calculated equivalence ratio is determined by directly
estimating the air inflow rate from the orifice flow equation at the
bottom vent, i.e., eq. (7) [23,24]. For this method, the pressure differ­
ence at the bottom orifice vent is recorded using the pressure trans­
ducers inside the compartment. The orifice coefficient Cd of 0.7 [23,24]
is considered. Considering the ambient room conditions, ṁa and there­
fore equivalence ratio is directly found for each LPG gas flow rate as
plotted in blue line of Fig. 6.
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
ṁa = Cd Av ρa 2 × |Δpa |/ρa (7)
Fig. 6 shows that the measured equivalence ratio agrees with the
calculated equivalence ratio found using the vent flow correlation for
the air inflow rate. The accuracy of the vent flow calculation relies on
the validated vent flow analysis and orifice coefficient, which could be
challenging to determine. Moreover, the real-time pressure measure­
ments at the openings introduce further complexities to the experiments.
As shown in Fig. 6, the calculated equivalence ratio has significant
fluctuations when fire becomes under-ventilated, i.e., ∅>1, and the
fluctuations amplify as the compartment becomes more fuel-rich. The
fluctuations are because of unsteady buoyancy-driven flow through the
openings and occasional smoke ejections through the bottom vents as
the flame within the compartments moves at times towards the bottom
vent to reach fresh oxygen flow. Therefore, it is observed that the phi-
meter is more robust tool to capture the real-time GER of a compart­
ment fire compared to the indirect flow measurements. The equivalence
ratio measurements by phi-meter will also help find the incoming air
flow rate (i.e., correlations such as eq. (6)) for various compartment
geometries with different types of openings if the mass flow rate of fuel is
S. Rasoulipour et al.
known.
7. Timber crib fire experiments and results
The same compartment and instrumentation described in Section 6
used for LPG gas fuel experiments were also used for experiments with
timber fuel.
Medium density fibreboard (MDF) cribs were used as the fuel for
these experiments to have consistent burning behaviour due to MDF’s
uniform properties and reduced tendency to form cracks during burning.
The MDF crib was placed near the compartment’s rear sitting on a sealed
loading table for fuel mass measurements. The back of the crib was
located 75 ± 10 mm away from the back of the compartment. The cribs
were made from a 30 mm thick MDF board and fixed with 2.4 × 30 mm
nails at 24 mm spacing in a crisscross pattern. Cribs were conditioned at
25 ± 2 ◦ C and 50% relative humidity for at least 48 h before testing. The
MDF crib fuel was formed from 300 mm long sticks in 12 layers with 6
sticks per layer. Therefore, the crib dimension was 300 mm (L) × 300
mm (W) × 360 mm (H). In these experiments, 200 mL of acetone is used
to start the ignition.
The MDF crib fire experiments were carried out in the compartment
used for LPG fuel test. The MDF crib fire experiments were conducted in
three different ventilation conditions with 100 mm and 71 mm opening
diameters. The measured equivalence ratios for the experiments in the
compartment with different opening diameters are plotted in Fig. 7. The
equivalence ratios exceed one shortly after the ignition as all the crib
fires were in under-ventilated conditions. As the fire starts to grow inside
the compartment, the ER starts to grow and reaches its peak. The
maximum ER is experienced for the compartment with 71 mm openings
which is up to 2.9, considering 30 s moving average of ER. The actual
maximum measured ER was 3.1.
The ER plot is expected to correspond to the gas concentrations
within the compartment, and ER changes could be interpreted from the
concentration measurements of oxygen and fuel (primarily THC and
CO). Fig. 8 shows O2, CO2, CO, and total hydrocarbon (THC) gas con­
centrations for the experiment with 71 mm openings. The O2, CO2 and
CO are measured using a Siemens Oxymat/Ultramat 6 analyser set that
directly measures the sampling gas taken from the compartment. THC%
measured is methane equivalent concentration measured by a flame
ionisation detector (FID) using heated sample lines.
As the fire grows inside the compartment, the ER grows and reach its
peak after 18 min. At this point, the THC and CO are relatively high, i.e.,
7.6% and 6.6%, and O2 is relatively low, i.e., 2.0%. Hence, the
compartment is fuel-rich and has the highest fuel to oxygen ratio
Fig. 7. Equivalence ratio (ER) measured by phi-meter for MDF crib fire ex­
periments in a compartment with two circular openings. The measured ER is
plotted for three experiments with 100 mm and 71 mm diameters.
8
Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558
experienced during the experiment. After the peak, the ER starts to
decay due to THC and CO gradual decline. At 27 min, the oxygen con­
centration starts to increase, affecting the decay of the ER. At approxi­
mately 35–45 min, the concentrations of O2, CO, and THC are almost
steady, reflecting the steady ER during the same period. After 45 min, as
the fire starts to burnout, the O2 increases and the THC and CO further
decline, resulting in a further decrease of the ER, i.e., compartment
moving towards becoming fuel-lean. The same trend is observed in the
two other MDF crib experiments, despite having different fuel to oxygen
concentration ratios.
The equivalence ratio found by the phi-meter can be used to estimate
the stoichiometric fuel to air ratio of fuels with unknown chemical for­
mulas. This could be of particular benefit for solid fuels that their
chemical formula could change during the combustion process. In the
MDF crib experiment, the stoichiometric fuel to oxygen ratio is deter­
mined using eq. (3) in which the phi-meter measures phi, ṁfuel is
determined by recording the fuel mass and ṁa is found from the orifice
plate correlation. Fig. 9 shows the stoichiometric fuel to oxygen ratio
related to the fuel mass loss percentage for three MDF-crib experiments
in the compartment with 100 mm and 71 mm openings.
As can be seen, the stoichiometric fuel/oxygen ratio of the MDF crib
diminishes with the fuel mass loss for both experiments. The stoichio­
metric fuel/oxygen ratio found for both experiments with the same fuel
shows a reasonably similar trend, and R2 error function is found 0.78 for
the trendline. There is a discrepancy in the stoichiometric fuel to air
ratio for the first 10% of the mass loss. This discrepancy is unlikely to be
related to the moisture content of the fuel as all cribs were maintained in
the same controlled conditions before the test and require further
investigation. This could be related to the initial air concentration in the
box (and initial thermal expansion of gases). Other possibility for the
early discrepancy could be the ignition by 200 mL of acetone which may
take different times to fully consume depending on the compartment
ventilation openings.
The typical chemical formula for wood and char in the textbooks
[25] are CH1.5O0.7 and CH0.2O0.02. These chemical formulas are crude
and could vary for different types of woods. Based on writing the stoi­
chiometric reaction for these chemical formulas, the stoichiometric fuel
to oxygen ratio would be found 0.75 for wood and 0.37 for char. The
measured equivalence ratio by the phi-meter and the method described
above shows a continuous reduction of stoichiometric fuel to oxygen
ratio for MDF material, from 0.6 (MDF) to 0.2 for when 75% of the initial
mass is burned.
The equivalence ratio measured by the phi-meter can be used for
estimating the CO or THC yields from a fire with specific fuel types. This
is a subject of the subsequent studies, and the phi-meter is demonstrated
to be a robust apparatus to measure the average equivalence ratio of the
compartment. Phi-meter is especially useful for solid fuels (with C, O
and H atoms) with variable stoichiometric equivalence ratios during the
combustion process in which equivalence ratio cannot be determined
theoretically by measuring pyrolysis rate and air flow rate.
8. Conclusion
The ventilation condition of an enclosure fire is one of the most
critical variables that influence the combustion and the consequent
production of combustion gases such as CO and CO2. As part of exper­
imental studies on compartment fires, an enhanced phi-meter was
designed and developed to measure O2 and CO2 combustion species by
adapting the existing methodology to assist in classifying the compart­
ment fire behaviour. Incorporating the CO2 analyser had the advantage
of not requiring the removal of CO2 from the sample flow by chemical
means, which could reduce the cost of experiments and improve the
accuracy. CO measurement is also provided to confirm that the CO
generated because of incomplete combustion in the compartment fire
was fully combusted in the furnace with the introduction of the
S. Rasoulipour et al. Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558

Fig. 8. Oxygen, CO2, CO and total hydrocarbon (THC) concentrations within the compartment in time for MDF crib fire experiments in the compartment with two
circular vents of 71 mm diameters.

( )
/
Fig. 9. Stoichiometric fuel to oxygen ratio i.e. ṁfuel of MDF crib fuel in terms of the fuel mass loss percentage. The results are for two separate crib fire tests
ṁO2 st.
in the compartment with two 100 mm and 71 mm diameter openings. The yellow line is the fitted curve based on all the data points that shows R2 error function of
0.78 for the trendline. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

additional oxygen flow and fully transformed to CO2. In all three
experimental sets, CO measured by the analyser was near zero indicating
that complete combustion took place in the furnace. The calibration of
the enhanced phi-meter provided good agreement with the theoretically
calculated values for propane/air and methane/air mixtures, and the
time-dependent results for the compartment experiments showed good
sensitivity in the results.
The equivalence ratio is measured for heptane pool fire experiments,
and comparison with theoretical values showed good agreement
(maximum error of 6%) considering the theoretical air inflow rate cor­
relation where pyrolysis rate is not negligible compared to air inflow.
The equivalence ratios measured for heptane pool fires of this study
ranged from 0.2 for oxygen-rich conditions to 2.3 for fuel-rich condi­
tions. The equivalence ratios calculated theoretically and measured by
phi-meter align with the visual observations considering the presence of
sustained external flame. The phi-meter used for the pool fire experi­
ment consisted of an electric quartz tube furnace heated to 800 ◦ C
through which the combustion gases mixed with an additional stream of
oxygen re-combusted with reaction species measured and analysed
sample lines were heat traced to 150 ◦ C. The use of a quartz tube as a
combustion reactor in the furnace had a number of breakages. There­
fore, a new phi-meter furnace was built with Inconel, i.e., nickel-chrome
alloy with stainless steel flanges and high-temperature graphite gaskets
heated to 900 ◦ C and filled with Nickle-Chrome wires of 200 mm long as
the catalyst. The heated sample lines also upgraded to heat up to 190 ◦ C.
The upgraded phi-meter system was used for LPG gas and timber crib
fire experiments in a compartment with two circular openings and had
improved performance. The better performance was due to easier
handling of the sample and mitigating clogging of the sample lines that
could have created spikes in ER plots.

9
S. Rasoulipour et al. Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558

The equivalence ratio measured by the phi-meter for LPG fuel fire
experiments within an enclosure with two 100 mm diameter circular
openings is conducted for various burning rates and agree with the
theoretical values. The theoretical equivalence ratios are determined
from the air inflow rate correlation found for the compartment with two
openings previously in Ref. [20] (eq. (6)) and also directly by using the
orifice flow equation (eq. (7)) for a known mass flow rate of LPG. The
phi-meter has proved to reliably measure equivalence ratios when
measuring air flow rate is challenging.
Lastly, the phi-meter is utilised to measure the equivalence ratio of
MDF-crib fires in the compartment with two openings. Equivalence ra­
tios found ranged between 0 and 2.9. As the gas yields of solid fuels
could vary during the pyrolysis process, the stoichiometric fuel/oxygen
ratio varies during the combustion, and the phi-meter is found to be a
helpful method to determine the global equivalence ratio. The phi-meter
can be used to characterise the stoichiometric fuel/oxygen ratio of fuels
with an unknown chemical formula (or variable chemical formula
during the combustion process) by fuel mass loss and air inflow mea­
surements. The equivalence ratio measured by the phi-meter can be used
to correlate the CO and THC yields to the equivalence ratio and assist in
analysing the flammability of the smoke gas products in under-
ventilated fires.
The following are suggested for the future development of the phi-
meter.
• Using phi-meter to characterise the external flame from compart­
ment vent. This could be useful in optimising the spandrels design for
multi-storey buildings [19].
• Using phi-meter to characterise equivalence ratio of compartment
fires before the occurrence of smoke explosion or other types of
compartment deflagrations.
• Also, the phi-meter sampling port could be revised to use a probe
with equally spaced sampling holes in lower height within the
compartment to examine the spatial variation.
Author statement
Sahand Rasoulipour: Undertaking methane calibrations as well as
LPG gas and MDF crib experiments, analysis of the collected data and
preparation of the publication.
Anthony Parkes: Undertaking the propane calibration and heptane
pool fire experiments, initial derivation of the enhanced Phi-meter
apparatus (with O2 measurement) equations.
Charles Fleischmann: Ideas and supervision of the experiment
design, oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity
including planning, design and execution of the experiments; reviewing
of the results and the publication draft.
Declaration of competing interest

• Using phi-meter to characterising the combustion yields including
CO and THC in terms of equivalence ratio for various fuels.
• Using phi-meter to analyse the equivalence ratio in compartment
fires that lead to occurrence of smoke explosions to characterise
combustion prior to such incidents [21].
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.

Appendix A

This appendix details the derivation of the equivalence ratio equations (equation (5)) following the process described by Babrauskas [9],
considering sampling not only O2, but also CO2 and CO species. The equivalence ratio is commonly defined as equation (3). The correlation used for
the phi-meter is developed considering three different scenarios. In the first scenario, the sample flows are unburned before entering the tube furnace
with no extra oxygen added. For a well-ventilated fire ( ∅ < 1), when sufficient oxygen is available for participation of the entire fuel mixture in the
combustion, (ṁfuel )sample = (ṁfuel )stoichiometry , which results to:
ṅr(O2)
∅= (A1)
ṅ0(O2)

Now, considering ṅ(O2) as the exhaust oxygen molar flow, the stoichiometric flow of oxygen required for complete combustion (for ∅ < 1) can be
considered as:
ṅr(O2) = ṅ0(O2) − ṅ(O2) (A2)

Using (A1) and (A2), for ∅ < 1, leads to:

n0(O2) − ṅ(O2)
∅= (A3)
ṅ0(O2)

Considering applying phi-meter to a range of fuels containing C, H and O atoms, conservation of N2 is valid for the phi-meter as N2 will not
participate in the combustion process. Therefore:
/ / /
ṅ0(O2) 0 − ṅ(O2) ṅ(O2) 0
ṅ(N2) ṅ(N2) ṅ(N2) Ẋ (O2) Ẋ (N2)
∅= 0
/ =1− 0 / =1− 0 (A4)
ṅ(O2) ṅ0 ṅ(O2) ṅ0 Ẋ (O2) Ẋ (N2)
(N2) (N2)

Equation (A4) can be transformed in terms of the mole fraction of O2, CO2 and CO that are measurable with the O2, CO2 and CO analysers.
0 0 0
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO)
∅=1 − 0
forφ < 1 (A5)
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO)

The above formula represents the regime of no additional oxygen; this means that it is limited to the oxygen-rich regime and cannot be used for the
fuel-rich regime. To allow for the fuel-rich case, oxygen must be added to the gas flow stream to combust any unburned fuel. Therefore, the flow of the
oxygen required for complete combustion including the added oxygen stream can be considered as:

10
S. Rasoulipour et al. Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558

nr(O2) = ṅa(O2) + ṅ0(O2) − ṅ(O2) forφ > 1 (A6)

where ṅa(O2)
is the molar flow of the added oxygen by the oxygenator.
Therefore, from equation (A6), the completed phi-meter equation can be expressed as below by including the added oxygen stream term above:
ṅa(O2) + ṅ0(O2) − ṅ(O2) ṅ0(O2) − ṅ(O2) ṅa(O2)
∅= = + (A7)
ṅ0(O2) ṅ0(O2) ṅ0(O2)

The first term of this equation is the equivalence ratio for the oxygen-rich scenario (φ < 1), and the second term corresponds to the added oxygen
equivalence ratio term and is separately expressed as:
n˙a(O2)

(A8)
n˙(N2)
∅aO2 = ṅ0(O2)
ṅ0(N2)

a
Now the added oxygen flow stream can be represented by the ideal gas law where the volumetric flow rate of the added oxygen stream V̇ O2 is
evaluated with the volumetric flow rate of the total sample flow, V̇. Therefore, the molar flow of added oxygen can be expressed as:
a
V̇ O2 PaO2
ṅa(O2) = a
(A9)
R TO2

And the molar flow of nitrogen can be expressed as:

( )
V̇ N2 P V̇ 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO) − Ẋ (CO2) P
ṅN2 = = (A10)
RT RT
Then the added oxygen equivalence ratio term can be expressed as:
( 0 0 0
) a
1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO) V̇ O2 PaO2 T
∅aO2 = 0 ( ) (A11)
a
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO) − Ẋ (CO2) V̇ P TO2

Now assuming that the temperatures and the pressure are considered equal for the oxygenator and the oxygen analyser, and considering Х iO2 as the
oxygen mole fraction in the outlet with the extra oxygen added, the volume flow of oxygen is:
a
( a
) 0
V̇ (O2) + V̇ − V̇ (O2) Ẋ (O2)
(A12)
i
Ẋ (O2) =
V̇

and:
a i 0
V̇ (O2) Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (O2)
= 0
(A13)
V̇ 1 − Ẋ (O2)

Therefore, by substituting the above equations into the equation; the added oxygen term becomes:
i 0 0 0 0
1 Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO)
∅aO2 = 0 0
(A14)
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO)

The above equation is derived assuming that volume flow is constant while typical mass flow controllers (MFC), inclusive of those used in this
study, produce constant enthalpy flow. In this case, heat is continuously delivered to the system at the furnace and using a chiller upstream of the MFC
is essential to reduce the temperature to a fixed temperature. The flow passing through the MFC contains CO2, nitrogen and oxygen varying from 0 to
i
Ẋ(O2) . Equation (A14) is corrected to handle a constant enthalpy flow (instead of constant volume flow) by considering the β correction factor as below
[9]:
i 0 0 0 0
1 Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO)
∅aO2 = 0 0
β (A15)
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO)

where β is found below using the method in Ref. [9] but considering CO2 and CO being present in the flow stream passing the MFC:
[ ( ) ( ) ( ) ]
1 − 1 − CCO2
N2
Ẋ (O2) − 1 − CCO2
CN2
Ẋ (CO2) − 1 − CCO
CN2
Ẋ (CO)
β= ( ) (A16)
CO2 i
1 − 1 − CN2 Ẋ (O2)

β is found to be near unity ±0.5% in the experiments, and its effects on the results are found negligible. However, its effect must be considered if the
gas flow temperature passing through the MFC and analyser is high or variable. This is often not the case as the sample flow is cooled using a chiller
between the MFC and the furnace. To present a simpler version of the equation, β is removed from the final equation presented below.
The final equivalence meter equation that allows for φ > 1 regimes can be defined as follows:

11
S. Rasoulipour et al. Fire Safety Journal 129 (2022) 103558

0 0 0 i 0 0 0 0
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO) 1 Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO)
∅=1− 0
+ 0 0
(A17)
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO) Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) − Ẋ (CO)
i 0
Using this expression, Ẋ(O2) is measured at the start of the experiment, with an oxygenator running before smoke fuel sampling. The terms Ẋ(CO2) ,
0
Ẋ(CO)
are negligible and can be removed from the equation. Finally, Ẋ(CO) is generally near zero (<500 ppm), confirming that complete combustion
takes place within the combustion furnace with an additional oxygen stream. Hence, the simplified equation for the enhanced phi-meter would be:
0 i 0 0
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) 1 Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2)
∅=1− 0
+ 0 0
(A18)
Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2) Ẋ (O2) 1− Ẋ (O2) 1 − Ẋ (O2) − Ẋ (CO2)

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