3
1/4-inch stainless-steel tubing. To generate a stable spray
fire, the oil pressure and temperature need to reach certain
threshold values. An electric heating strip is placed around
the cylinder to increase the oil temperature and lower the
viscosity when using the motor and hydraulic oils.
Two suppression nozzles are used for each suppression
test except for the dual agent system due to the dual agent
system requiring two nozzles for each side of the engine
block. For each single-agent system, we have one nozzle
on each side of the engine block facing the engine side at
a 45-degrees upward configuration at 16-inch (0.41-m)
from the floor. For the dual agent the nozzle with the wet
chemical nozzle is placed facing the fire source while the
dry chemical is facing the engine block. Then for consis-
tency the dry chemical nozzle and the wet chemical nozzle
are reversed.
The Fire Suppression Facility is equipped with two video
cameras to record each test. The first camera is mounted in
the center of the roof above the fan 7ft (2.13 m) from the
floor to give a frontal view of the diesel engine during the
test. The second video camera is placed on the left side of
the Fire Suppression Facility on the side wall near the roof
on the exit section, facing the Fire Suppression Facility to
record the back end of the diesel engine. The video feed is
recorded on a video recorder in the control room. The two
video files are stored in an accessible network drive.
The schematic of all the components involved in the
experiment are shown in Figure 2.
EXPERIMENT
The mocked-up diesel engine is placed 12 ft (3.66 m) from
the fan and in the center of the Fire Suppression Facility,
while the other end of the Fire Suppression Facility is open
to the atmosphere, referred to as exit section. Prior to start-
ing the test, the fan is set to an airflow of roughly 145 fpm
(0.74 m/s) at the exit section. The airflow is measured in
front of the diesel engine using a vane anemometer trans-
verse method. Once the fan is set at the proper airflow, no
adjustment is made to the fan. The data acquisition is turned
on for 30 seconds prior to starting the test to record all the
baseline data parameters. Once the baseline parameters are
recorded, the fuel spray system is turned on, and as the fuel
is spraying out of the nozzle, the fuel is ignited by using a
propane burner. The spray fire nozzle used is a PJ20 [2] to
atomize the fuel which is located 3 inches (0.08 m) centered
in front of the diesel engine and 14 inches (0.36 m) off the
floor as shown in Figure 3. Because this experiment was
designed to test the effectiveness of the suppressing agent,
the research did not investigate nozzle type or location as
part of optimization for fire suppression. This procedure
is repeated for the motor and the hydraulic oils except the
heating strip is wrapped around the cylinder to lower the
viscosity.
The spray fire is allowed to burn until the CO and CO2
gas concentrations stabilize, in about 60 seconds or less,
before initiating the fire suppression system. In this exam-
ple, a wet chemical fire suppressant agent is being used. The
Figure 2. Schematic of components involved in the experiment
1/4-inch stainless-steel tubing. To generate a stable spray
fire, the oil pressure and temperature need to reach certain
threshold values. An electric heating strip is placed around
the cylinder to increase the oil temperature and lower the
viscosity when using the motor and hydraulic oils.
Two suppression nozzles are used for each suppression
test except for the dual agent system due to the dual agent
system requiring two nozzles for each side of the engine
block. For each single-agent system, we have one nozzle
on each side of the engine block facing the engine side at
a 45-degrees upward configuration at 16-inch (0.41-m)
from the floor. For the dual agent the nozzle with the wet
chemical nozzle is placed facing the fire source while the
dry chemical is facing the engine block. Then for consis-
tency the dry chemical nozzle and the wet chemical nozzle
are reversed.
The Fire Suppression Facility is equipped with two video
cameras to record each test. The first camera is mounted in
the center of the roof above the fan 7ft (2.13 m) from the
floor to give a frontal view of the diesel engine during the
test. The second video camera is placed on the left side of
the Fire Suppression Facility on the side wall near the roof
on the exit section, facing the Fire Suppression Facility to
record the back end of the diesel engine. The video feed is
recorded on a video recorder in the control room. The two
video files are stored in an accessible network drive.
The schematic of all the components involved in the
experiment are shown in Figure 2.
EXPERIMENT
The mocked-up diesel engine is placed 12 ft (3.66 m) from
the fan and in the center of the Fire Suppression Facility,
while the other end of the Fire Suppression Facility is open
to the atmosphere, referred to as exit section. Prior to start-
ing the test, the fan is set to an airflow of roughly 145 fpm
(0.74 m/s) at the exit section. The airflow is measured in
front of the diesel engine using a vane anemometer trans-
verse method. Once the fan is set at the proper airflow, no
adjustment is made to the fan. The data acquisition is turned
on for 30 seconds prior to starting the test to record all the
baseline data parameters. Once the baseline parameters are
recorded, the fuel spray system is turned on, and as the fuel
is spraying out of the nozzle, the fuel is ignited by using a
propane burner. The spray fire nozzle used is a PJ20 [2] to
atomize the fuel which is located 3 inches (0.08 m) centered
in front of the diesel engine and 14 inches (0.36 m) off the
floor as shown in Figure 3. Because this experiment was
designed to test the effectiveness of the suppressing agent,
the research did not investigate nozzle type or location as
part of optimization for fire suppression. This procedure
is repeated for the motor and the hydraulic oils except the
heating strip is wrapped around the cylinder to lower the
viscosity.
The spray fire is allowed to burn until the CO and CO2
gas concentrations stabilize, in about 60 seconds or less,
before initiating the fire suppression system. In this exam-
ple, a wet chemical fire suppressant agent is being used. The
Figure 2. Schematic of components involved in the experiment