Fire suppression

ENGR 403 – Fire Engineering

Module 10

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 Fire suppression
Suggested readings

z FEDG – Chapter 14, Fire Fighting Water Supplies

z FEDG – Chapter 8, Detection and Suppression
System Design

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 Fire suppression
Introduction

z Mechanisms
z Water
z Gases, foams and powders
z Fire retardants
Occupant Fire service
Automatic intervention
fire-fighting
systems

Ref : FEDG,

3 Figure 4.2
 Fire suppression
The fire triangle

Heat
Reduce
heat

Heat causes
vaporisation and
maintains reaction
temperature

Remove Remove
fuel oxygen

Fuel Chemical reaction

Oxygen
21% in air
4 Interrupt chemical
reaction
 Fire suppression
Introduction

z Some systems are designed to extinguish a fire

z In other cases a system might be used to control a
fire until extinguishment is achieved
‰ By another system
‰ Fire Service attendance
‰ Fuel is consumed
‰ Fuel is removed / shut-off

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 Fire suppression
Introduction

z Ideal extinguishing agents

‰ Non-flammable
‰ Mobile at -20 ˚C to 40 ˚C
‰ Non-toxic in its original form
‰ Not decompose into toxic products
‰ Not cause property damage
‰ Electrically non-conductive

z And in particular for liquids

‰ High heat of vaporisation
‰ Boiling point below the 250 ˚C to 450 ˚C pyrolysis
temperatures of common solids

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 Fire suppression
Introduction

z Wide range of liquids we could consider as

extinguishing agents

Friedman R. Principles of
Fire Protection Chemistry
and Physics, Table 14.1

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 Water

8
 Fire suppression
Water

z Water is very effective at fire suppression

‰ High latent heat of vaporisation absorbs heat
‰ Steam displaces oxygen from combustion zone
‰ Wetting of neighbouring materials prevents ignition
‰ Clean, cheap, readily available

z Problems with freezing in cold climates

z Beware of contaminated water run-off
z Electrically conductive

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 Fire suppression
Water

z A litre of water absorbs 2.605 MJ when heated from 0 ˚C to

steam at 100 ˚C
z Thus the cooling power of water is 2.605 MW per litre per
second (L/s) of water
z Not all water applied to an incident will reach a fire or turned to
steam, defined as the cooling efficiency (kc)
z The value for kc is the subject of much debate but a values of
0.5, 0.35 or lower are suggested in the FEDG

10 FEDG, Figure 14.1

 Fire suppression
Water

z Water delivery by
‰ Sprinkler systems
‰ Water mist systems
‰ Some hand-held fire extinguishers
‰ Fire hoses
‰ Buckets etc!

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 Gases, foams and powders

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 Fire suppression
Gas flood

z We can introduce non-combustible gases into a space to

displace oxygen
‰ Carbon dioxide
‰ Nitrogen (and nitrogen mixtures)

z Other gas flood system introduce chemicals that affect the

reaction mechanisms

z Typically used in computer rooms,

machinery spaces, micro-chip
fabrication, sensitive historic artefacts

Source: www.osha.gov

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 Fire suppression
Gas flood

z Typical advantages
‰ Systems rapidly control a fire
‰ Less extinguishment agent compared with water
‰ O2 displacement causes less damage to contents

z And disadvantages
‰ Spaces need to be reasonably well sealed
‰ People need to evacuate spaces depending on the gas
used
‰ Systems can be expensive
‰ Systems that affect reactions may produce corrosive
chemicals as a by-product

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 Fire suppression
Gas flood

z Halons used to be popular fire extinguishing agents

z Very effective and reasonably non-toxic (at
concentrations <7%)
z Now phased out because of environmental effects

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 Fire suppression
Foams

z Foams used to smother fires and thus prevent

oxygen reaching fuel
z Foams have some cooling effects
z Commonly used for flammable liquid fires
z Detergent or organic protein based chemicals used
to make foam

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 Fire suppression
Foams

z Different foams have different applications and

properties
‰ Depend on fuel types
‰ Fixed or mobile installations

z Applications – aircraft hangers, petrochemical fires,

fuel storage, forest fires, kitchen hoods

www.nasa.gov/images/content/143634m www.lcacc.org/environment/index.html
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 Fire suppression
Dry powders

z Dry chemical powders

‰ Affect chemical reaction in flame
‰ Absorb heat
‰ Block radiation from flame to fuel
‰ Forms surface coating

z Projected by an inert gas

z Agents used for small flammable liquid fires, electrical fires
z Powders may form corrosive compounds
z Baking soda (NaHCO3 – sodium bicarbonate), common salt
(NaCl – sodium chloride) and others are used as dry powders

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 Fire suppression
Miscellaneous

z Other fire suppression mechanisms…

z Remove fuel using manual or automatic shut-off

z Smother the fire

‰ Sand
‰ Fire blanket

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 Fire retardants

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 Fire suppression
Fire retardants

z Interrupt chemical reactions using fire retardants

z Modify organic materials with additional chemicals
‰ Make ignition more difficult
‰ Reduce the burning rate

z Various chemical compounds used as fire retardants

‰ Polyurethane foams fire-retarded using halogen compounds
(chlorine or bromine)
‰ Woods may incorporate a wide range of inorganic salts although
not commonly applied in New Zealand
‰ Organic phosphorus compounds used as plasticisers for polymers

z The concentration of fire retardants added to actual

materials will not prevent combustion completely
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 Fire suppression
Fire retardants

z Four main mechanisms involved with fire retardants

z Generally two or more mechanisms act at once
‰ Promotion of char formation and reduction in formation of
flammable gases
‰ Release of gases that extinguish gaseous combustion
reactions
‰ Endothermic decomposition that absorbs heat
‰ Formation of glaze or foam barrier that isolates fuel

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