A preliminary study on the fire suppression efficacy of a prototype system on hydrocarbon-based diffusion flames

Abstract

We have investigated the use of a novel dual-stage firefighting strategy, where an inert gas is deployed as a carrier agent to discharge foamed water, obtained by mixing environmentally friendly surface-active agents. Here we also report specifically on some in-house built practical strategies. With a view to gauging the relative fire suppression efficacies of the selected agents, each one was discharged as a fine spray onto fires involving hexane, and also optionally where a typical Li-ion battery electrolyte acted as the fuel. In summary, it can be inferred that the air- or nitrogen-detergent formulations showed enhanced fire suppression attributes, in small-scale experiments, as compared with the aqueous medium alone. Furthermore, in almost all cases, the fire extinction property can be attributed mainly to the physical phenomena, produced by the flow of the inert gas, or air and enhanced wettability of the medium. Given that the fire tests were done at a relatively small scale, no definite conclusions can be drawn than those provided above; however, this study warrants further investigation, especially, at a larger scale.