Performance evaluation of portable water mist fire extinguishing system

Abstract

The phase out of Halon production under the Montreal Protocol has led to intense research to find a replacement agent for fire protection. Through extensive research and testing, water mist systems have gained worldwide acceptance as an effective solution in many applications. In this article, we will introduce a portable water mist system, with longer operating time than traditional fire extinguisher and less water damage than hydrant. The operation time of traditional fire extinguisher is always ten to thirty seconds, too short for fire control and dangerous to operator. If the fire is getting larger, hydrant will be used, and always results in huge water damage, especially in high-tech facilities. So, it's necessary to find a system with longer operation time to control fire and less water used for water damage problem, especially for high-tech facilities. This portable extinguish system is designed to operate at least ten minutes, long enough for fire control, and this system uses high pressure water mist nozzle, less water used, the water damage will not be a problem. This Portable system uses a petrol engine or an electric engine to pump water for high pressure operation. The petrol one could be used out of buildings, and electric one could be used in buildings without air pollution problem, which is important to employees and high-tech manufacturing instruments. There is a mist nozzle with one hose connects to the system and this soft pipe could be 50 meters long, could easily move to the fire origin and releases mist to fire. Series of fire tests were taken for evaluating the performance of this portable system. In fire tests, air temperatures, images, combustion products and extinguish time are recorded simultaneous. The fire tests include wood stabs fire, sofa fire, petrol pan fire, motorcycle fire and car fire. In these fire tests, the portable water mist system performs well and meets what we need, longer operation time and less water damage. This portable system also has capability to cool the environment temperature and wash down combustion products and soot, it's safer to operator.