Experimental investigation of the innovative foaming device using gas as the sole power for firefighting

Abstract

Foam is used as an efficient means of firefighting. The innovative foaming device using gas as the sole power is designed to replace the previous foam generating system using two or three power sources, and appropriate size of the new foaming device can be made to control dust and fire in households or companies based on the actual need. The results of the experimental investigation on the new device in three cases are as follows: in the first case, the minimum working pressure is 0.4 MPa and the working flow range is: 8.0858 m3/h ≤ qa ≤ 48.45 m3/h and qL ≤ 0.4532 m3/h. In the second case, the maximum working time of the new foaming device is 109 s and the minimum working pressure of the storage tank II is 0.26 Mpa. In the third case, the maximum working time of the new device is 205 s and the minimum working pressure values of the storage tanks I and II are 0.26 Mpa and 0.3 Mpa respectively. The fire extinguishing experiment is explained in this article, and the results show that the foam generated by the new foaming device is more effective and efficient than the ABC powder fire extinguisher. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 36: 150–157, 2017