ABSTRACT
Assuming the fire does not extinguish, it will grow as long as there is adequate fuel and oxygen and enough energy received at the fuel surface to release further flammable volatiles. Associated with the process of combustion is the presence of a flame and plume. As the fire progresses, air is entrained into the rising plume where it mixes with the fuel vapors released. The mixing of the oxygen, supplied ftom the entrained air, with the flammable vapors emitted by the pyrolizing fuel results in combustion that liberates heat. A large fiaction of this energy is absorbed by the gases within the combustion zone resulting in an increase in the temperature of these gases and airborne solid particulates. As the fire gases rise due to buoyancy, they continue to entrain air. This lateral entrainment of air, above that needed for combustion, results in the increase of the plume mass flow while the plume gas temperature decreases with respect to the height above the burning fuel surface. Thus the plume is composed of mass and energy contributed by combustion and the entrained air. Figure 1 - 1 depicts the primary processes associated with a burning object.
