Flame Suppression Effectiveness of Halon Alternatives.
Flame Suppression Effectiveness of Halon Alternatives.
(175 K)
Grosshandler, W. L.; Hamins, A.
NISTIR 5499; September 1994.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. Annual
Conference on Fire Research: Book of Abstracts.
October 17-20, 1994, Gaithersburg, MD, 3-4 pp, 1994.
Sponsor:
FAA Technical Center, Atlantic City, NJ
Available from:
National Technical Information Service
Order number: PB95-104964
Keywords:
fire research; halons; effectiveness; halon 1301; flame
extinguishment; halon alternatives
Abstract:
The elimination of new production of halon 1301 has
forced the manufacturers, owners, and users of aircraft
to search for an alternative. The program described
here developed performance screens for candidate agents
as a means to identify the best chemicals for subsequent
full-scale aircraft fire extinguishment evaluation at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The discriminating
factors could be lumped into four categories: agent
dispersion characteristics, required storage volume,
environmental factors, and operational issues. The
results presented in this abstract are limited to the
flame suppression experiments, which directly impact the
storage volume of agent required. However, the
dispersion of the agents in cold-flow experiments varied
more extensiveley than the amount of the agent required
for flame suppression. The behavior of the chemical as
it leaves the storage vessel (typically pressurized with
N2 at 4.1 MPa) and subsequently flashes or breaks into
droplets, evaporates, and mixes with ambient air is
critical, and can render an agent which requires less
mass to extinguish a laboratory flame less effective in
suppressing an actual aircraft fire.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899