Facility for Assessing Suppression Effectiveness in High Speed Turbulent Flames.
Facility for Assessing Suppression Effectiveness in High
Speed Turbulent Flames.
(360 K)
Gmurczyk, G. W.; Grosshandler, W. L.; Peltz, M.; Lowe,
D. L.
Combustion Institute/Eastern States Section. Chemical
and Physical Processes in Combustion. Fall Technical
Meeting, 1993. October 25-27, 1993, Princeton, NJ,
487-490 pp, 1993.
Keywords:
turbulent flames; suppression; halon 1301; aircraft
engines; nacelle fires; fire protection; nitrogen
Abstract:
The work described in this paper is part of a larger
effort focused on finding alternatives to halon 1301 for
application to aircraft engine nacelle and dry bay
in-flight fire protection. The engine nacelle encases
the compressor, combustor and turbine. Protection is
required to eliminate a possible fire resulting from
leaking fuel, hydraulic, or lubrication lines. Dry bays
refer to closed spaces in the wings and fuselage,
inaccessible in flight, and into which fuel could spray
and possibly ignite following an equipment malfunction.
Alternative chemical compounds are sought which do not
create unacceptable safety, environmental, or systems
compatibility problems. Four burner arrangements are
being used to rank the relative suppression
effectiveness of different gaseous agents: [1] a cup
burner similar to the design of Sheinson et al. (1989)
[2] an opposed flow diffusion flame (OFDF) burner
following the technique developed by Seshadri (1977),
[3] a turbulent spray flame burner (Grosshandler et al.,
1993), and [4] a detonation tube. The detonation tube
discussed in this article has been chosen to examine the
performance of alternative agents in a highly dynamic
situation, in which the residence time of the agent in
the reaction zone is an order of magnitude shorter than
in the other three burners and in which pressure effects
on the chemistry are thought to be important.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899