An empirical model has been developed to relate the water distribution on the surface of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage vessels, protected by a water deluge system, to parameters of the water deluge design. The model has been used to predict the optimum water distribution across the surface of a 2.2 m diameter LPG tank protected by a 4-row water deluge system, together with corresponding water deluge parameter settings. The model has been validated by comparing predicted water distributions generated by the model, for particular combinations of water deluge parameter settings, with measured water distributions obtained using a real system, for which the same water deluge parameter settings were adopted. The model was able to predict the water distribution with an accuracy of the order of +/-10%. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.