- Author
- Leonard, J. T. | Burns, R. | Jones, P. | Ouellette, R.
- Title
- Training Simulant for Halon 1211 Portable Extinguishers.
- Coporate
- Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC Hughes Associates, Inc., Baltimore, MD
- Report
- NRL/MR/6180-94-7615, September 8, 1994, 35 p.
- Keywords
- halon 1211 | training | fire extinguishers | halon alternatives | water | spray nozzles | fire fighting training
- Identifiers
- halon simulants
- Abstract
- Halon 1211 portable extinguishers are a vital part of the Navy's flight deck fire fighting strategy. All flight deck crash and rescue teams receive training in the use of Halon 1211 portable extinguishers on the specialized aircraft fire fighting training devices at the Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC), Millington, TN. The total amount of Halon 1211 used in these training evolutions can be as much as 20,000 lbs per year. However, the production of Halon 1211 was phased out in January 1994 under adjustments to the Montreal Protocols which were approved in Copenhagen last year. Accordingly, efforts have been undertaken within the Navy to conserve existing supplies of Halon 1211 for fire fighting applications only. For example, the Naval Air Systems Command (PMA-205) tasked the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to develop a replacement for Halon 1211 for flight deck fire fighting training. The replacement agent was required to have the same physical appearance, discharge characteristics (time, reach, etc.) and weight as the current shipboard Halon portable extinguisher and be capable of being discharged from the current extinguisher. It was not required that the replacement agent extinguish the fire as effectively as Halon 1211, since all of the training fires at Millington are spray fires which are turned off by the instructor once he is convinced that the student has the proper technique. The objective of the current study was to determine if pressurized water could be used as a simulant for Halon 1211 in the Standard Navy portable extinguishers for flight deck firefighting training.