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Performance by Various Water Mist Nozzles in Extinguishing Liquid Pool Fires

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Abstract

Water mist based systems have emerged as potentially lucrative alternatives to Halon-based fire suppression systems and have been extensively studied in the literature. In the present work, experimental investigations are carried out on the performance of the water mist nozzles in extinguishing pool fires of diameter 0.1 m, 0.2 m, and 0.3 m with diesel and heptane as fuels. The growth of the fire is studied for these fires by measuring the transient mass burning rates. Water mist is generated by passing plain water at room temperature through single-head solid-cone pressure-swirl nozzles with X-type swirl-inserts. The nozzle is directed vertically downwards and operated at various heights (0.75 m to 2 m) from the fuel surface with the injection pressure ranging from 6 bar to 10 bar. The extinction performances of four nozzles with orifice diameters of 1.2 mm, 1.65 mm, 1.9 mm, and 2.45 mm are investigated through videography. A comparison of the extinction performances by all the nozzles is presented and the optimal nozzle based on the consumption of water is reported for a given fire. An empirical correlation for the extinction time is reported in both the dimensional and non-dimensional form. Observed interactions of the spray with fuel surface are reported depicting probable undesired phenomena in the application of the water-mist system with top injection.

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Abbreviations

D :

Diameter (m)

D v,j :

Diameter (µm) below which (j*100) % of the spray’s volume (or mass) resides, j being fraction between 0 to 1

F :

Spray thrust

f (D) :

Droplet size distribution or probability density function (µm−1)

H a :

Axial distance from the nozzle where the spray is characterized (m)

ΔH C :

Heat of combustion (kJ kg−1)

ΔP :

Injection pressure (bar)

H f :

Mean flame height of the flame (m)

L :

Length (m)

\( {{\dot{\text {m}}}}\) :

Mass flow rate of water (kg s−1)

Re :

Reynolds number (dimensionless) based on orifice diameter \( Re = \frac{{\rho V_{A} D_{o} }}{\mu } = \frac{{4\dot{m}}}{{\pi \mu D_{o} }} \)

t :

Extinction time (s)

t* :

Non-dimensional extinction time

V :

Velocity (m s−1)

z :

Nozzle height i.e. the vertical distance between the nozzle tip and fuel surface in the investigations on extinguishment of the fire (m)

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (mPa-s)

ρ :

Density (kg m−3)

DSLR :

Digital single-lens reflex

FFT :

Fast Fourier transform

HRR :

Heat release rate

SMD :

Sauter mean diameter

A :

Actual

act :

Activation

N :

Number

o :

Orifice

p :

Pan or pool

Q :

Volume

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Rahul Shirsat for the technical assistance in building experimental setups.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400 076, India

    Harshad Shrigondekar, Arindrajit Chowdhury & S. V. Prabhu

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  1. Harshad Shrigondekar
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  3. S. V. Prabhu
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Correspondence to S. V. Prabhu.

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Shrigondekar, H., Chowdhury, A. & Prabhu, S.V. Performance by Various Water Mist Nozzles in Extinguishing Liquid Pool Fires. Fire Technol 57, 2553–2581 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-021-01130-0

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