Efficient On-Board Fire Suppression

Several new agents were found to be nearly as efficient as Halon in extinguishing laboratory flames, but they generated overpressures in FAA Aerosol Can Explosion Test (ACET) facility due to unwanted burning. These agents were failed as Halon replacements for aircraft cargo-compartment applications. However, the possibility of blending these new agents and producing a mixture that can eliminate the unwanted burning was not explored. The time delay between the fuel and agent ignitions can be utilized for suppressing the latter through adding another agent. Using three chemical agents in Phase I we have demonstrated that fire-suppression characteristics of a blend can become better than those of the individual components. Continuing this approach an agent blend that passes FAA ACET will be developed in Phase II. Using the expertise and tools available, ISSI will systematically and scientifically reach this goal. We will consider HFC chemical agents, super-efficient dry chemical, inert gases and water-mist as parent agents. We will develop the chemical-kinetics mechanisms for the blends and validate them using cup-burner experiments and simulations. An innovative experiment that mimics the reacting flowfields of FAA-ACET will be designed and build for measuring the overpressure risks of the blends. We will perform CFD simulations