- Author
-
Lugar, J. R.
- Title
- Water Mist Fire Protection.
- Coporate
- David W. Taylor Naval Ship R&D Center, Bethesda, MD
- Report
-
DTNSRDC Letter 2843; JRL Series 9555,
December 1979,
25 p.
- Keywords
-
water
|
mist
|
fire protection
|
ships
|
submarines
|
fire suppression
|
fire extinguishment
|
fire tests
|
potable water
- Identifiers
- shipboard
- Abstract
- A new fire protection system for submarines has been developed which not only provides rapid fire extinguishment, but also cools the involved compartment and precipitates a portion of the heavy particulate smoke. This system, known as water mist, utilizes finely atomized water droplet, in the 80-100 micron range. Water in this form is at its most efficient state to extinguish Class B fires and to remove a tremendous amount of water from the fire itself and from the involved compartment. By applying water efficiently, only a relatively small amount of water is required; therefore, the potable water supply can be utilized, which will minimize the amount of damage to equipment and to electronic circuits. Water mist is a fixed system consisting of a hydro-pneumatic tank, atomizing nozzles, and an array of distribution piping located in the overhead. The distribtuion piping and nozzles provide uniform water mist coverage of the entire compartment resulting in rapid extinguishment of fires at any location within the compartment as well as cooling of the surrounding structure.