Full-scale test rig for oil- and gas fires
StatoilHydro and ConocoPhillips have initiated a new project on offshore safety, and invited ComputIT and SINTEF NBL to participate as R&D partners in the project. The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has also been invited to the project, and is donating a minor found to the project. The aim of the JIP-project is to study the effect of monitors (water sprayers) attacking oil- and gas fires in congested spaces and to study the fire fighting ability of deluge water. The latter both with and without new environmentally friendly additives. Further, the aim is to re-evaluate wetter present guidelines for water-based fire fighting systems reflects the results obtained in the tests that shall be carried out in the project.
A new test is under construction at an outdoor test facility, at SINTEF NBLs laboratories in Trondheim. The test rig is located on a concrete plate collecting all spill water from the tests. The test rig dimensions will be 10 m high, 10 m wide and 15 m long. The concrete plate will be 30 m x 40 m, with a collection capacity of 60 000 litres of water.
ComputIT, which is a company developing advanced CFD models for combustion and flowfield simulation, carries out calculations to predict the severity of the test fires and the effect of water sprays. The project is a close cooperation where pre-calculations are utilised to position instruments for thermal measurements, and the measurements of temperatures and heat fluxes are in turn used to further develop and verify the calculation tool (Kameleon FireEx). Kameleon FireEx will thereafter be used to simulate further scenarios to obtain a broader basis for re-evaluation of the guidelines. This cooperation has proven successful in earlier projects, and is a helpful way of providing useful engineering tools for planning and construction of offshore installations.
The tests in the new full scale rig will be performed autumn 2009/spring 2010, and the project is to be completed by the end of 2010
