RESULTS OF FIELD FIRE RESEARCH ON FIRE DEVELOPMENT DURING AN EMERGENCY FALLOF A WIND POWER PLANT

The article presents the results of full-scale field fire research, the purpose of which was to study the processes of fire development due to an emergency fall of a wind power plant, accompanied by a spill of flammable liquid. The relevance of the work is due to the need to improve existing methods for determining fire-prevention distances, which do not take into account scenarios of emergency destruction of objects and the occurrence of class B fires. An analysis of the remaining studies and publications in the field of limiting the spread of fire by observing fire-prevention distances was conducted. The purpose of the publication was formed, which is to study individual dependencies of fire formation and development during an emergency fall of a wind power plant, accompanied by an emergency oil spill and its subsequent ignition, and tasks were set to achieve the set goal. A series of full-scale fire experiments were conducted using a 10 m high model of a wind turbine with an oil-filled casing with a volume of 20 l, during which the fall of the turbine was simulated, and the patterns of the oil spill area, the dynamics of the fire development and its duration were analyzed. Using thermal imaging equipment, the development of the fire was visualized at the second, tenth minute and at the moment of self-burning. The results obtained indicate that when the wind turbine fell, the average initial area of the fire was about 18.4 m² at a temperature of 560-630°C, which poses a potential threat to adjacent objects. It was found that the most dangerous is the burning phase from the second to the tenth minute. It was experimentally established that the maximum distance of fire spread from the base of the turbine reached 15.6 m, which is 56% greater than its geometric height. The conclusions drawn and experimental data obtained will serve as a basis for improving the calculation method for assessing fire distances. Taking into account factors such as accidental fuel spills will allow for more accurate prediction of fire risks and implementation of necessary fire prevention measures at the design stage of wind power plants.