Logo image
Back
A Kinetic study on the production of toxic compounds in enclosure fires under suppression by halon replacement extinguishing agents
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A Kinetic study on the production of toxic compounds in enclosure fires under suppression by halon replacement extinguishing agents

B. Moghtaderi, B.Z. Dlugogorski and E.M. Kennedy
Developments in Chemical Engineering and Mineral Processing, Vol.8(1-2), pp.113-128
2000
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/apj.5500080108
url
Link to Published Version *Subscription may be requiredView

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a theoretical investigation designed to characterise the mechanism of formation of those toxic compounds which are produced when halon replacement extinguishing agents are released in the hot upper-layer of typical enclosure fires. The present work was primarily motivated by the fact that in many building fires the extinguishing agent may not be directly applied to the flame but released in the hot layer. For this purpose, detailed chemical kinetic modelling techniques were used to predict the generation of combustion products and toxic byproducts within the hot layer. This can be justified based on the fact that recent studies in this field have shown that the production of major combustion products in the upper-layer is kinetically controlled. Effects of the mixing phenomenon were investigated by considering two possible extremes using infinitely fast and infinitely slow mixing models. The heat loss variation was also studied under isothermal and adiabatic conditions. Calculations presented here show that the concentration of toxic compounds originated from halon replacement extinguishing agents are much higher than those of halons mainly because for such agents, due to the lack of significant chemical reaction inhibition, higher extinguishing concentration are required.

Details

Metrics

32 Record Views
Logo image