Study on preparation and thermal insulation properties of curing foam

Abstract

The thermal insulation performance of curing foam is a critical factor affecting fire extinguishing efficiency. In this study, sodium dodecyl sulfate was used as the foaming agent, and then combined with foam stabilizers, foam thickeners and inorganic powders to prepare the curing foam extinguishing agents. The result demonstrated that the addition of PEG and Xanthan gum could prolonge the 50 % drainage time of foam solution to 1.98 times compared with the foam solution without foam additives. The composite powders imparts an excellent thermal insulation and high-temperature stability to curing foam, especially the mass fractionratio of loess to cement equals to 4:6 and the water cement ratio is 0.7. Moreover, the thermal insulation tests showed that when the test temperature equalled 500 °C, the curing foam could reduce the temperature of the covered surface by 234.2 °C. Compared with the water-based foam, the thermal insulation performance was improved by 58.1 %. Finally, fire extinguishing test showed that the fire extinguishing time of curing foam is 0.47 s and 33.99 s shorter than that of water-based foam and water, respectively. The consumption of water-based foam and water fire extinguishing consumption is 1.46 times and 4.37 times that of curing foam, respectively. The excellent structural stability is due to the addition of Xanthan gum and PEG additives, which provide a more uniform distribution of bubbles and denser pores. At the same time, the mixture of loess and cement acts as a skeleton in curing foam thereby improving the stability of the integral structure and further preventing the heat transfer.