Fire zoning for PSV sizing and depressurization for process

systems
Manizheh Khodayari, MIChemE Process Safety and loss prevention engineer, manizheh.Khodayari@Fluor.com, Fluor Ltd, 140 Pinehurst Road, Farnborough GU14 7BF, UK
 Are equipment potentially exposing to pool fires?
 Or they are more likely to be exposed to jet fires?
Fire zoning for PSV sizing and depressurization system calculations in a fire scenario is very critical. The size of a fire
zone is a dictating factor in relief load calculations. API 521 addresses the size of a fire zone in vertical and horizontal
Process safety engineers need to perform fire modelling by means of a fire hazard scenario assessment in a process
directions as 7.6m and 12.5m respectively and regardless of the level of the heat radiation for different type of
facility. If the results of the assessment indicate that equipment is exposed to a pool fire or a jet fire which is not
hydrocarbons and fires. This size is normally used by process engineers for the purpose of depressurization calculations.
exceeding the heat input more than 100kW/m2, the same empirical method as before can be applied for the calculations.
Also the fire zoning and required assessment shall be carried out in parallel and the results shall be provided to the related
This paper provides overviews for heat radiation envelopes with special focus on jet fires by means of different case
process team. It might be necessary that process engineers to be engaged in heat input calculations to support this
studies. This paper explains why fire zoning studies shall be performed for different fire scenarios for PSV sizing and
assessment. These results can lead to much bigger than fire envelopes as it has been addressed in API 521 and can engage
depressurisation system design. Also it provides reasons for the impact of jet fire heat radiation and its importance in
more surface areas of process systems in a real fire envelope.
these calculations.
If the results of the assessment indicate higher level of heat input than 100 kW/m2 at the equipment, then the analytical
The purpose of this paper is to explore around the following questions and to provide views in these areas:
method shall be applied. Also the size of the heat radiation contour or size of the fire heat radiation envelope shall be
assessed on this basis and the process team informed.
 Can 7.6m vertically and 12.5 m horizontally be generalised for all type of fires and variety of the flammable
substances?
For the duration of a fire the following aspects need to be evaluated by process safety engineers:
 Is it realistic to ignore jet fire heat radiation from these calculations?
 Adequate numbers, correct types and the best locations of fire detection and related annunciation systems
This item, is not addressing a direct impinging jet fire. It is regarding to an indirect heat radiation from a flame
 Fire detection and annunciation systems reliability and availability,
which can impact systems when the heat flux is considerable enough in a minimum certain period of time. This heat
radiation also can cause overpressure inside systems.  Availability of adequate firefighting means
 Human factor aspects that improves operators’ capabilities in realisation and
decision making for staged depressurization,
 Where are the borders for application of empirical method and analytical method that are addressed in API 521 as
 Depressurisation period and remaining inventory inside the system after
the methodologies for relief load calculations for systems under fire? Which one of those methodologies shall be
shutdown and depressurisation time
applied in the calculations?
Therefore process safety engineers shall perform fire assessment studies in process facilities to address the type and the
The level of heat radiation and the size of a fire envelope vertically and horizontally strongly depend on the type of a
duration of fires which can be either jet fire or pool fire and address the size of the associated fire zones. The results of
flammable substance, size of a leak, process conditions inside a system, amount of an inventory, and wind weather
these assessments will provide accurate information to process engineers for PSV sizing and depressurization system
conditions.
design.
For this purpose, 4 different case studies were selected to indicate the dimension of heat radiation levels equal or more
Following figures have been selected from the case studies where the size of the jet fire and the associated heat radiation
than 100 kW/m2 for different hydrocarbons with the same process conditions. The cases are as follows and results of the
envelope varies in different wind weather conditions and with type of the hydrocarbon. The jet fires have been modelled
study have been listed in table 1.
based on the process conditions that have been addressed in Table 1. Each case has been modelled horizontally and
vertically to show the heat radiation extent than can be extremely beyond 7.6m and 12.5m in vertical and horizontal
1. Case 1; 100% of methane
directions when the heat radiation criteria has been set as 100 kW/m2. Please note that in higher heat radiations the results
2. Case 2; 90% propane and 10% butane
will be close to these figures.
3. Case 3; 100% butane
4. Case 4; 100% octane
Case 3- Horizontal jet fire-Side view
The case study results for instance for case 3 indicate that, for a system containing butane with a 25mm leak size, 16
barg and 45 C is leading to a 100 kW/m2 of heat radiation at 35m height and 57m radius at 5D wind weather
condition. The modelling of the jet fires has been done vertically and horizontally to show the extent of the heat radiation
in both directions. Also the results of the study indicated that, this substance will lead to higher heat radiation intensities
than 100 kW/m2 in the vicinity of the corresponding jet flame. Further details for all four case
studies have been addressed in Table 1.

Table 1: Fire heat radiation modelling results for cases 1 to 4

The size of the fire 
envelope which has 
been addressed in 
API 521 as  7.6m 
vertical  and 12.5m 
horizontal is a very 
optimistic  figure. 
This size cannot be 
generalised for  Case 3- Vertical jet fire-Side view
different type of 
fires, different type 
of hydrocarbons and 
especially for high 
According to Section 4.4.13.2.2 of API 521 only those sections of equipment within 7.6m from a pressure systems 
sustained pool fire level are used for relief load calculations. This standard explains that leading to jet fires.  
hydrocarbon fires can exceed a height of 7.6m and based on experience, using this height is
Some pool fires and 
adequate for calculations. As the results of the case studies indicated in this paper; the size of the
heat radiation envelope horizontally and vertically can be much more than the figures addressed in especially high 
API 521 which can impact more surface areas of process equipment containing flammable pressure jet fires can 
hydrocarbons. Also not all fires shall be necessarily being pool fire to be considered in the create extremely 
calculations. As it is clear, there are many processing gas facilities that they are not only containing
liquid phase of hydrocarbons but also they are containing gas phase. Therefore the addressed bigger envelopes 
figures in API 521 seem very optimistic and cannot be applied generically for PSV and than as addressed in 
depressurization systems sizing for all type of flammable substances especially for heavier than air API 521. The figures 
hydrocarbons and high pressure systems.
in the right hand 
According to API 521, the rate of the generated vapour in a fire case is calculated by dividing side shows this fact  Case 4- Horizontal jet fire-Side view
absorbed heat value by the latent heat of a flammable content in a system containing a flammable clearly. Fire 
liquid. This method of calculation in API 521 is named as empirical method. Absorbed heat
modelling is the best 
equation has been correlated based on some experiments from open pool fires and their impact on
the tank surfaces containing liquid contents as listed in Table A.1 of API 521. The maximum heat tool to provide more 
input for this correlation has been addressed around 96 to 100kW/m2. As it was mentioned earlier, accurate figure for 
the heat radiation from hydrocarbon fires can be in such high levels that may lead to higher heat the size of the fire 
inputs more than 100 kW/m2 in process systems.
envelope. The risk of 
API 521 is addressing another method for heat adsorption in Section A.3.2 and introduces that as the PSV and 
analytical method which is included with radiated and convected heat. depressurization 
Table 2 has been resulted from simplified heat radiation calculations to show the level of potential system sizing 
absorbed heat in different fire heat radiation levels at the equipment surface. without a fire 
modelling and 
screening analysis 
can lead to a design 
which may not 
handle the full 
capacity of the  Case 4- Vertical jet fire-Side view
inventory. 

The analytical methodology is also applicable for pool and jet fires for averaged heat flux for pressure increase
calculations in the systems or local heat flux for material strength calculations.

However, the main focus of this paper is on the jet fires but it is worth mentioning that, not all pool fires will necessarily
lead to the same fire envelope size as addressed in API 521. For the design of depressurisation systems and PSV sizing in
case of fire; the following items as the starting points shall be investigated: