Large-Scale Experimental Investigation of Effect of Mechanical Ventilation on Smoke Temperature in Ship Engine Room

Large-scale experiments were carried out in an engine room platform to investigate the mass burning rate and smoke temperature under mechanical ventilation. Four air inlet heights ranged from 0.1 m to 1.0 m and six ventilation rates ranged from 38 h⁻¹ to 126 h⁻¹ were explored. The mass burning rates of pool fire and temperature distributions in the engine room were obtained. The average and maximum temperature values of the entire engine room were calculated to analyze the temperature characteristics of the engine room under various mechanical ventilation conditions. Results showed that the mass burning rates were slightly affected by ventilation rates. The vertical temperature distribution of ship engine room fires under mechanical ventilation presented to be a single-zone distribution. The average temperature of the entire engine room decreased with the increase of ventilation rate. On the basis of thermal balance analysis, a prediction model was proposed to calculate the average temperature of the entire engine room, which was consistent with the temperature trend measured in the experiments within 20% error.