Investigation on Effect of Distance between Tanks on Fire Spread in Oil Refinery

Safety has become the priority for oil and gas industry in order to protect workforce,
property and country’s economy. In spite of the oil industry's excellent efforts in the
field of fire prevention, it is still necessary to provide fire protection. Oil refinery
deals with large amount of hydrocarbons which are highly flammable. Therefore, a
reliable and functional fire fighting system is important to ensure safety of the
refinery. This research investigates the effect of distance between tanks on fire
spread. Hydrocarbon fire of burning tanks will radiate heat to adjacent tank even
when fire fighting operation is in progress. In general, some may think that as long as
the fire fighting operation is in progress, the fire will be under control. However, in
real situation when fire fighting is in progress, the heat release rate of the fuel will
decreases but it will continue radiating heat to adjacent tanks which may cause fire
spread. Defining the behaviour and heat release rate of hydrocarbon fire when there
is fire fighting operation is in progress relating in distance of tanks. This study also
adapt fire safety on performance based design where Fire Dynamic Simulator CFD
software will be used to study the safe boundary distance of tanks containing
hydrocarbon. It has been found from the simulation that when fire fighting operation
in progress, fire spread between tanks at distance of 3 meter and 5 meter. However,
fire did not spread when distance is 7 meter.