ABSTRACT
With the phasing out of halons as fire suppressants due to their environmental effects, attention has turned to finding possible replacements. One area of interest is fire suppression by water mists, in particular, ultrafine sprays with much larger active surface areas compared to conventional sprays and requiring significantly less water. While Halon 1301 acts by a primarily chemical mechanism, less than 10% of the effect of water mist is estimated to be chemical. It is feasible, therefore, to create a chemically enhanced mist using chemically active additives dissolved in water. This technology will produce synergy between physical and chemical flame suppression effects.
In the present paper, a new range of promising chemicals are introduced and tested as water mist additives. The particular substances that have been tested in the form of mists of weak solutions (3-10% m/v) are NaCl; KCl; CoCl2; ZnCl2; MnCl2; CuCl2; KHCO3; (NH3)2HPO4; C12H22O11; FeSO4.7H2O and (NH2)2CO.
Suppression efficiency is tested and reported in two different experimental configurations, a cup-burner and reduced fire enclosure.
Keywords: Fire suppression, Water mist, Chemical suppression.
