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Summary The cargo compartment of an airplane in flight is a complex environment with dynamic pressure (pressurization and depressurization), nonconservative oxygen, and unidirectional ventilation. In this study, n‐heptane pool fires were performed under static pressure, pressurization, and depressurization in a full‐scale airplane cargo compartment. The static pressure included 30 and 90 kPa, the pressurization was from 30 to 90 kPa at rates of 6, 12, 19, and 25 kPa/min, while the depressurization was from 90 to 30 kPa at rates of 6, 12, 17, and 20 kPa/min. The effects of pressure, oxygen concentration, and ventilation on pool fire characteristics including fuel mass loss rate (MLR), flame centerline temperature, and flame shape under each condition were concluded. The results show that the predominant factor of MLR was different in three conditions. The flame is divided into four regimes, in which the fuel vapor regime is used to emphasize the influence of fuel vapor on flame temperature above the fuel surface. The concept of average flame shape is put forward to reflect the flame occurrence probability. And its bottom, which named average flame root, presents the negative correlation with compartment pressure.

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This article presents an experimental investigation on the pool fire plume characteristics in a fullscale depressurized aircraft cargo compartment. The effects of decreasing pressure and vent flow rate on the fire characteristics such as flame shape, flame puffing, flame height, and centerline temperature were analyzed. The results show that during the depressurization process, the ventilation had an activation effect on the mass loss rate, and its increment had a linear relationship with the dimensionless ventilation factor. In addition, the larger depressurized rate caused the larger dimensionless ventilation factor and further resulted in the larger increment of mass loss rate. The flame puffing frequency was determined by the ratio of the gas density in the flame area of that in the ambient air, which increased with the drop of pressure. For flame centerline temperature, there was a counteraction area in the flame intermittent region, where the centerline temperature had almost no difference before and after the depressurization. The conclusions could provide the theoretical base and reference materials for the fire disaster in the cargo compartment of real aircrafts.