- Author
-
Marker, T. R.
|
Reinhardt, J. W.
- Title
- Water Spray as a Fire Suppression Agent for Aircraft Cargo Compartment Fires. Technical Note.
- Coporate
- Federal Aviation Administration, Atlantic City International Airport, NJ
- Sponsor
- Department of Transportation, Washington, DC
- Report
-
DOT/FAA/AR-TN01/1; ANM-112; AAR-422,
June 2001,
53 p.
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM: Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center's Fire Safety Section's Full-Text technical reports page (in Adobe Acrobat portable document format [PDF]): http//www.fire.tc.faa.gov/reports/report.stm AVAILABLE FROM National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900; Rush Service (Telephone Orders Only) 800-553-6847; Website: http://www.ntis.gov AVAILABLE FROM: Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center's Fire Safety Section's Full-Text technical reports page: http://www.fire.tc.faa.gov/reports/report.stm
- Keywords
-
water sprays
|
fire suppression
|
aircraft compartments
|
compartment fires
|
water mist
|
flammable liquids
|
halon 1301
|
explosions
|
standards
- Abstract
- This report describes full-scale fire tests conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate the effectiveness of several types of water spray systems against in-flight cargo compartment fires. Currently, commercial transport cargo compartments are protected with Halon 1301 fire suppression systems. Water spray is being considered as an alternative agent for Halon 1301 which is no longer being produced because of its ozone depletion potential. A dual-fluid (air/water) nozzle system, two types of high-pressure, single-fluid design systems, and a second dual-(water/nitrogen) nozzle system were evaluated. The in-flight fire scenarios included simulated bulk-loaded fires, containerized fires, flammable liquid fires, and aerosol can explosions. The majority of tests were conducted inside a wide-body DC-I1 cargo compartment; additional tests were conducted in a B727 narrow-body compartment. Several tests utilizing one of the high-pressure, single-fluid design systems were conducted according to the Minimum Performance Standard (MPS) for aircraft cargo compartments which standardizes and specifies the fire test performance for halon replacement agents. Parameters such as activation temperature, spray duration, nozzle configuration, and flow rate were varied during the tests to determine the impact on water usage and suppression. The tests determined that the systems were capable of suppressing class A and class B cargo fires for extended periods, using varying amounts of water. Water spray systems require additional development and evaluation to become a viable replacement for Halon 1301 because of the weight (agent) penalty associated with the systems tested. Also, the capability of water spray against cargo fires involving aerosol cans needs further investigation.