Influence of dispersion degree of water drops on efficiency of extinguishing of flammable liquids

• Main Authors: Korolchenko Dmitriy, Voevoda Sergey
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2016-01-01
• Series: MATEC Web of Conferences
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/20168604056

Depending on the size of water drops, process of fire extinguishing is focused either in a zone of combustion or on a burning liquid surface. This article considers two alternate solutions of a heat balance equation. The first solution allows us to trace decrease of temperature of a flammable liquid (FL) surface to a temperature lower than fuel flash point at which combustion is stopped. And the second solution allows us to analyze decrease of burnout rate to a negligible value at which steam-air mixture becomes nonflammable. As a result of solve of a heat balance equation it was made the following conclusion: water drops which size is equal to 100 μm will completely evaporate in a zone of combustion with extent of 1 m if the flying speed of drops is even 16 mps (acc. to Stokes v = 3 mps); whereas drops of larger size will evaporate only partially.