- Author
-
Lazzarini, A. K.
|
Krauss, R. H.
|
Chelliah, H. K.
|
Linteris, G. T.
- Title
- Extinction Conditions of Non-Premixed Flames With Fine Droplets of Water and Water-NaOH Solutions.
- Coporate
- Virginia Univ., Charlottesville
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Contract
- NIST-GRANT-HH0095
- Book or Conf
- Combustion Institute, Symposium (International) on Combustion, 28th. Proceedings. Volume 2. July 20-August 4, 2000,
Combustion Institute, Pittsburgh, PA,
Edinburgh, Scotland,
Candel, S.; Driscoll, J. F.; Burgess, A. R.; Gore, J. P., Editors,
2939-2945 p.,
2000
- Keywords
-
combustion
|
droplets
|
flame chemistry
|
water mist
|
halon alternatives
|
flame suppression
|
sodium hydroxide
|
extinction
|
premixed flames
|
burners
|
drop sizes
|
size distribution
|
water vapors
|
mass flow
|
flow rate
- Identifiers
- counterflow burner; droplet generation; pure water droplets; effect of a constant mass flow rate of water; effect of polydisperse size distribution
- Abstract
- Interactions of fine droplets of water and water-NaOH solutions with a steady, laminar counterflow methane-air flame are investigated, both experimentally and numerically. A water atomizer generating a polydisperse distribution of droplet sizes with a mean diameter of 20 m is used in experiments with steady feed rate. Comparisons of the measured flame extinction condition as a function of droplet mass fraction in the air stream indicate a trend similar to that predicted previously using 20 m mondisperse water droplets. The hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian numerical model previously developed is generalized to include polydisperse distribution of droplet sizes, however, the differences seen between experiments and the numerical predictions at high water mass fractions could not be attributed to variation is size distribution alone. Present experiments support the conclusions of an earlier modeling work that, on a mass basis, fine water mist can be as effective as the now banned gaseous fire suppressant halon 1301. Inclusion of NaOH in water (up to 18% by mass), is shown to significantly enhance the fire suppression ability of water by complementing its thermal effects with chemical catalytic radical recombination effects of NaOH.