Calculating impacts for large open hydrocarbon fires

In this presentation, the authors discuss how to calculate thermal radiation hazards for pool fires, jet flames, fireballs and vapor cloud fires. In calculating the thermal radiation hazards from fires, the approach is to determine first the radiative environment of the fire, that is, the level of incident radiant flux seen by a target as a function of distance from the fire. Once the flux level is known as a function of distance, the application of damageability criteria leads to the establishment of safe separation distances, impact zones or firefighting strategies.