Research on the mechanism of surfactant-enhanced water mist suppressing liquid pool fire

Abstract

Water mist (WM) is widely used to suppress various liquid fires due to its numerous advantages. In order to enhance the suppression ability of WM, additives have become an effective means. In this study, we selected three surfactants as additives for WM, chose ethanol, gasoline, and cooking oil as the suppression targets, conducted comparative experiments, and analyzed the suppression mechanism based on the experimental results. For ethanol pool fires, the most effective inhibitor is 0.01 % FS-51, while the least effective is 0.01 % 1-heptanol for gasoline pool fires, the most effective inhibitor is 1 % CAB-35, while the least effective is 0.01 % 1-heptanol; for cooking oil pool fires, the most effective inhibitor is 1 % CAB-35, while the least effective is pure WM. Based on the suppression results, combined with the fuel characteristics and the surface active agent characteristics, the addition of surface active agents mainly affects the surface tension and foam properties of the WM, the combination of which can better suppress liquid pool fires. Among them, the change in surface tension will affect the specific surface area and momentum of the mist droplets; the foam properties include foaming ability and foam liquid content.