09 Nov Combating Duct Fires
In a new paper published online between Guillermo Rein and Hong-Zeng Yu titled Fire Technology, the experts break down the intricacies of combatting duct fires.
Many traditional systems designed to fight fires are stifled by the vertical, and other varied orientations in duct systems. Though duct systems rarely see fires, chemicals can be pushed around by the travelling air, and other flammable material can wind up falling into the vent, eventually getting trapped and building heat.
A solution, put forward by Yu, suggests the best solution would be a water mist dispersal system, with a modular design, created with sharp turns and pivots in mind.
Tests evaluated in the Fire Technology paper had several interesting results.
The vertical duct tests showed that, by discharging water mist upward in the co-flow manner with the exhaust flow, both the protections for the horizontal 0.30-m duct could successfully extinguish the fire in the vertical duct, but the protection for the horizontal 0.61-m duct could not completely extinguish the fire in the vertical duct when water mist was discharged upward in the co-flow manner.
However, by discharging water mist downward against the exhaust flow, the fire in the vertical 0.61-m duct could be extinguished rapidly.
The water mist system can utilise multiple angles within ducts to always have an advantage against a spreading fire, quickly stopping its spread before any damage can be done to a facility or employees.
Read the full paper online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10694-023-01459-8