Investigation of Air Foam and Heptafluoropropane Foam Fire Extinguishment for Storage Tanks Containing Low-Boiling-Point Flammable Liquids
Youquan Bao,
Lu Wang,
Huiqiang Zhi,
Shichang Lu,
Junyang Wang,
Xia Du,
Yiliang Huang,
Kanghui Xu,
Qiyang Shu,
Xiaopo Wang
Affiliations
Youquan Bao
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Fire Safety Technology, Key Laboratory of Fire Protection Technology for Industry and Public Building, Minstry of Emergency Management, Tianjin Fire Science and Technology Research Institute of MEM, Tianjin 300381, China
Lu Wang
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Fire Safety Technology, Key Laboratory of Fire Protection Technology for Industry and Public Building, Minstry of Emergency Management, Tianjin Fire Science and Technology Research Institute of MEM, Tianjin 300381, China
Huiqiang Zhi
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Fire Safety Technology, Key Laboratory of Fire Protection Technology for Industry and Public Building, Minstry of Emergency Management, Tianjin Fire Science and Technology Research Institute of MEM, Tianjin 300381, China
Shichang Lu
Tianjin Shengda Fire Industrial Corporatiaon, Tianjin 300382, China
Junyang Wang
Hangzhou New Epoch Fire Protection Science & Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 311100, China
Xia Du
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Fire Safety Technology, Key Laboratory of Fire Protection Technology for Industry and Public Building, Minstry of Emergency Management, Tianjin Fire Science and Technology Research Institute of MEM, Tianjin 300381, China
Yiliang Huang
Tianjin Shengda Fire Industrial Corporatiaon, Tianjin 300382, China
Kanghui Xu
Hangzhou New Epoch Fire Protection Science & Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 311100, China
Qiyang Shu
Hangzhou New Epoch Fire Protection Science & Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 311100, China
Xiaopo Wang
Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Due to the high saturated vapor pressure of low-boiling-point flammable liquids, it is difficult to make fire extinguishers for storage tanks containing them. Air foam extinguishing technology has been recommended by several standards. However, the effectiveness of air foam against low-boiling-point flammable liquid is still limited due to a lack of experimental data. To validate the reliability of air foam, fire-extinguishing measures for three low-boiling-point flammable liquids including propylene oxide, n-pentane, and condensate oil were carried out for the first time in this work. The results show that air foam fails the fire extinguishment of the studied liquids even at higher supply intensities. To address the challenge of fire extinguishment in storage tanks containing low-boiling-point flammable liquids, a novel method using heptafluoropropane (HFC227ea) phase change foaming to substitute air was proposed in this work. The experimental system of HFC227ea foam fire extinguishment was constructed. In addition, two low-boiling-point flammable liquids propylene oxide and n-pentane were selected as the research subjects, the fire extinguishment measures were conducted. The results show that the proposed method can realize rapid and effective extinguishment of flames for the studied liquids.
