INVESTIGATION OF THE USE OF PERFLUOROCARBONS AS FIRE SUPPRESSION AGENTS

PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL WORK HAS INDICATED THAT PERFLUOROCARBONS MAY BE EXCELLENT FIRE-SUPPRESSION AGENTS. BECAUSE THESE COMPOUNDS ARE NOT OZONE-DEPLETING SUBSTANCES, THEIR USE AS HALON 1301 TOTAL-FLOODING, FIRE-SUPPRESSION AGENTS IS QUITE PROMISING. THIS PHASE I EFFORT WILL EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF THESE COMPOUNDS AS FIRE-SUPPRESSION AGENTS AND PERFORM A FEASIBILITY STUDY ON THEIR USE AS TOTAL-FLOODING AGENTS TO REPLACE HALON 1301. THE PROJECT WILL ALSO EVALUATE THE POTENTIAL FOR THE USE OF PERFLUOROCARBONS AS DIRECT "DROP-IN" REPLACEMENTS FOR HALON 1301 IN EXISTING SYSTEMS. THE PROJECT WILL INVOLVE SMALL-SCALE TESTING OF THE SUPPRESSION QUALITIES OF A RANGE OF PERFLUOROCARBONS, AS WELL AS ANALYTICAL WORK ON OTHER ASPECTS OF THE COMPOUNDS RELATED TO THEIR DEVELOPMENT AS TOTAL-FLOODING AGENTS. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL WORK HAS INDICATED THAT PERFLUOROCARBONS MAY BE EXCELLENT FIRE-SUPPRESSION AGENTS. BECAUSE THESE COMPOUNDS ARE NOT OZONE-DEPLETING SUBSTANCES, THEIR USE AS HALON 1301 TOTAL-FLOODING, FIRE-SUPPRESSION AGENTS IS QUITE PROMISING. THIS PHASE I EFFORT WILL EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF THESE COMPOUNDS AS FIRE-SUPPRESSION AGENTS AND PERFORM A FEASIBILITY STUDY ON THEIR USE AS TOTAL-FLOODING AGENTS TO REPLACE HALON 1301. THE PROJECT WILL ALSO EVALUATE THE POTENTIAL FOR THE USE OF PERFLUOROCARBONS AS DIRECT "DROP-IN" REPLACEMENTS FOR HALON 1301 IN EXISTING SYSTEMS. THE PROJECT WILL INVOLVE SMALL-SCALE TESTING OF THE SUPPRESSION QUALITIES OF A RANGE OF PERFLUOROCARBONS, AS WELL AS ANALYTICAL WORK ON OTHER ASPECTS OF THE COMPOUNDS RELATED TO THEIR DEVELOPMENT AS TOTAL-FLOODING AGENTS.