Suppression Effectiveness of Extinguishing Agents Under Highly Dynamic Conditions.
Suppression Effectiveness of Extinguishing Agents Under
Highly Dynamic Conditions.
(497 K)
Gmurczyk, G. W.; Grosshandler, W. L.; Lowe, D. L.
International Association for Fire Safety Science. Fire
Safety Science. Proceedings. 4th International
Symposium. July 13-17, 1994, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,
Intl. Assoc. for Fire Safety Science, Boston, MA,
Kashiwagi, T., Editor(s), 925-936 pp, 1994.
Keywords:
fire research; fire safety; fire science; fire
suppression; fire extinguishing agents; predictive
models; halon 1301; fire extinguishing agents; dynamic
characteristics
Abstract:
Alternatives to halon 1301 are sought which are
effective fire suppressing agents and which do not
create unacceptable safety, environmental, or systems
compatibility problems. Investigations of eleven
chemical compounds using a deflagration/detonation tube
have revealed a great potential for the technique to
study the fire suppression process. The facility is used
to evaluate new suppressants, establishing their dynamic
characteristics as well as elucidating complex
suppression mechanisms occurring in fires under highly
dynamic conditions typical of fast turbulent flames,
explosions and detonations. A primary feature of the
set-up is that the conditions of the ignition event do
not affect the suppression process itself. Also,
because an agent of interest is premixed with the fuel
and air in a section of the tube divorced from the
ignition event, the influences of ignition and
entrainment of the agent into the flame are minimized.
The tube is closed to allow the increase in pressure to
influence the gas dynamics and chemistry. The
deflagration/detonation tube arrangement has been
successfully employed to clearly discriminate among the
dynamic characteristics of the eleven alternative
agents, revealing new unexpected effects. The results
have been used to help select among the alternatives for
full-scale testing in simulated aircraft dry bay fires.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899