Experimental evaluation of water mist with metal chloride additives for suppressing CH4/air cup-burner flames

Abstract

In order to investigate the fire suppression effectiveness of water mist with metal chloride additives, ultrafine water mists of these salts with diameters about 10μm were introduced into CH4/air non-premixed flame in the cup burner. Results showed that these droplets hard to make itself to the flame front under the cup burner flow conditions functioned as a carrier of the vaporized solid particles or its decomposed materials. The metal chloride improved fire suppression efficacy of water mist which were affected by the type and concentration of metal chloride. On a mass basis, there is a fire suppression effectiveness relationship of MgCl2<CaCl2<NaCl<KCl<MnCl2<FeCl2. The flame suppression ability of water solution/metal chlorides improves as the concentration of metal chlorides increase. However, upper additive limits exist due to the associated limiting vapour pressure of the additive.