• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.76-83
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• 2008

In the course of increasing in human and material damage caused by fire, it is an important research field to develop clean extinguishing agent which does no harm to global environment as well as has a good extinguishing efficiency. This research is a basic step to develop a new clean extinguishing agent. In order to get a satisfactory result, we tested fire extinguishing ability using nitrogen and Novec mixtures gas which are inert gas and new clean extinguishing agent. We used Cup Burner Test made by international standard ISO-14520 regulations of gaseous extinguishing agent ability test, and the fuels used in the test are n-heptane, methanol, ethanol, iso-propanol and 1-butanol. The experimental results of flame extinguishing concentration are n-heptane 6.54%, methanol 8.47%, ethanol 6.98%, isopropanol 6.10% and butanol 6.54% by pure Novec agent. So the finding is that a new clean agent, Novec has an efficient extinguishing ability in a state of gas. Also, in a test as to mixtures gas of nitrogen and Novec, it has a good result for minimum oxygen concentration is under 16%.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2007

This study aims to investigate, review, and summarize the definition, development, and applications of "percent agent in pipe", "percent of agent in pipe" which is used as a key factor in testing and evaluating the performance of gaseous fire extinguishing agents, including Halon 1301 and $CO_2$. This study also analyzes and compares the local and international standards on testing and evaluating the performance of gaseous fire extinguishing systems, as well as the results of system performance tests conducted as a part of performance evaluation and approval programs for gaseous fire extinguishing systems, especially, Korean Gaseous Fire Extinguishing System Performance Approval Program called KFI Approval. Percent agent in pipe was defined first in NFPA 12A, Standard on Halon 1301 Fire Extinguishing Systems, dating back to the 1970's. After the phaseout of Halon 1301 systems in 1994 in the developed countries, the percent agent in pipe has been widely used in Halon 1301 alternative clean agent fire extinguishing systems, both halocarbon clean agent systems and inert gas clean agent systems, as an essential criterion to assure the system design accuracy, determine the limitations and performance of a system, and to predict the system performance results accurately, especially, in association with their system flow calculations. Underwriters Laboratories has their own standards such as UL 2127 and 2166 applying percent agent in pipe in testing and evaluating the performance of clean agent fire extinguishing systems. As a part of a system performance test and approval program called KFI Approval System, Korea also has started to apply the percent agent in pipe as a key factor to test, evaluate, and approve the performance of gaseous fire extinguishing systems, including both high and low pressure $CO_2$ systems, from the early 2000's. This study outlines and summarizes the relevant UL and KFI standards and also describes the actual test resultant data, including the maximum percents of agent in pipe for gaseous fire extinguishing systems. As evidenced in lots of tests conducted as a part of the system performance test and approval programs like KFI Approval System, it has been proven that the percent agent in pipe may work as a key factor in testing, evaluating, and determining the limitations and performance of gaseous fire extinguishing systems, especially compared with the hydraulic flow calculations of computer design programs of gaseous fire extinguishing systems, and will remain as such in the future. As one thing to note, however, there are some difficulties in using the unified percent agent in pipe to determine the maximum lengths of pipe networks for gaseous fire extinguishing systems, because the varying definitions used by some of the flow calculations (not in accordance with NFPA 12A definition) make it impossible to do any direct comparison of pipe lengths based on percent agent in pipe.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.78-84
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• 2014

Viscosity agents were added to water to improve extinguishing performance of low pressure water mist suppression system on wood cribs fire, and a small scale wood cribs fire experiment was conducted to measure the extinguishing performance. CMC and agar were used for viscosity agent and as the amount of viscosity agent enlarges, it showed the increase of the viscosity of aqueous solution and the decrease of the fluidity. On wood cribs fire experiment, the extinguishing efficiency was improved with supplemental viscosity agent as it enhanced the adhesive time of aqueous solution on the wood, and therefore expanded the contact time of fire surface. The surface tension of aqueous solution was decreased with the addition of agar which to be assumed as an increase factor of extinguishing efficiency. By the extinguishing experimental result, the most effective extinguishing agent was CMC 0.6 wt.%, with the flame suppression time and the extinguishing time were reduced by 70s and 93s respectively at this concentration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.18-23
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• 2014

Foam extinguishing agent is widely used for extinguishing combustible liquid fires. Compared to other foam type extinguishing agents, protein foam has relatively low cost and low toxicity and produces stable foam blanket which is excellent in heat resistance and sealability, despite it has weak fluidity. Therefore the study investigated foaming characteristics followed by various factors affecting the fluidity of the protein foam extinguishing agent. The extinguishing characteristics differentiated by the changes in fluidity were also experimented. Foaming performance was compared by measuring the expansion ratio and the 25% drainage time. Moreover, the 25% drainage time and the extinguishing time was compared. The results showed that the 25% drainage time and the expansion ratio were increased as the pressure of nozzle and the concentration of hydrolyzed protein liquid enlarged. However the foaming and extinguishing performance were not improved when the condition exceeded certain level of pressure and concentration. The fastest fire extinguishing condition was the nozzle pressure 4bar with the 85wt.% of concentration of hydrolyzed protein liquid.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.147-155
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• 2020

This paper presents a study on the development of a fire extinguishing agent and extinguishing system for an energy storage system (ESS) fire. The fire extinguishing agent designed to extinguish an ESS fire is a highly permeable fire extinguisher that reduces the surface tension and viscosity while bringing about cooling action. This is the main extinguishing effect of this type of wetting agent, which displays the characteristics of fire extinguishing agents used for penetrating the battery cells inside the ESS module. For the fire extinguishing system, a local application system was designed to suppress fire on a rack-by-rack basis. A 360° rotating nozzle was inserted into the rear hall of the ESS module, and general nozzles were installed in the rack to maximize the fire extinguishing effect. The fire extinguishing agent was strongly discharged by virtue of the gas release pressure. Experiments on fire suppression performance with ESS module 1 unit and module 3 units showed that all visible flames were extinguished in 8 s and 9 s, respectively, by the fire extinguishing agent. In addition, based on confirming reignition for 600 s after the fire extinguishing agent was exhausted, it was confirmed that the ESS fire was completely extinguished without reignition in all fire suppression performance experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.95-99
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• 2008

Halon was known as a cause of the ozone layer destruction. In 1987, it was designated as one of the ozone-layer-destroying materials in the Montreal Protocol. Therefore substitutes of Halon agent has been developed including inert gas extinguish system, which is one of the most widely used fire extinguishing system. This study intended to increase the efficiency of inert gas extinguishing agent by using inert gas additives. As IG-541 shows high extinguishing power, the experiment was performed to measure the effects of gaseous additives to it. Cup-burner fire extinguishing apparatus was used with n-Heptane fuel. Among many of pure inert gaseous agents, Helium showed the most excellent extinguishing power. When Helium was added to IG-541, fire extinguishing power was increased and the concentration of oxygen in chimney also risen. By adding Helium to IG-541, the effectiveness of inert gas fire extinguishing system is able to be increased.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.78-84
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• 2009

We carried out fire extinguishing experiments with three kinds of water mist nozzle system. Fire extinguishing experiment according to installed nozzle height and fuel pan location was done. And fire extinguishing performance was compared with plain water and foam agent mixed solution. Water mist nozzle height was varied with 4m, 3.5m and 3m and position of fuel fan was varied 0.5m and 1m from the center of water mist nozzle. Foam agent that used in this experiment is 3% type of AFFF (Aqueous Film Forming Foam) solution. Experimental result showed the door opening effect was little. Fire extinguishing performance of foam agent mixture water mist was better than the plain water mist only.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.456-460
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• 2008

This study was on basic step to develop a good clean extinguishing agent. In order to get a satisfactory result, we tested fire extinguishing ability using Novec which is inert gas. In study used to Cup Burner Test its made by international standard ISO-14520 regulations of gaseous extinguishing agent ability test. The finding is that a new clean agent, Novec has a very efficient extinguishing ability in a state of gas.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.51-56
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• 2015

In this study, optimal design methods were applied to the agent discharge flow of clean agent fire extinguishing systems. The methods combined optimal design theory and engineering theory for engineering analysis in a design program or coast savings in value engineering. Optimal design parameters were determined to optimize the agent discharge flow based on the design theory of the clean agent fire extinguishing systems and the theory of optimal design. The design factors were verified in regard to suitability for the performance of fire extinguishing systems. The results provide a foundation for optimal design method methods in other fire extinguishing systems. Optimization of the agent discharge flow of the discharge nozzle was confirmed by the constraints on the inner diameter of the discharge nozzle and the pipe, agent arrival time, flow, and pressure variation of the agent. The deviation of discharge pressure and agent time of the agent discharge nozzle were found to correlate with the pressure variation.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.165-171
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• 2009

A compound agent that mixes inert gas agents and halocarbon agents and a complex fire suppression system using the compound agent have been developed. The ultimate goal of this study is to develop the extinguishing agent which doesn't destroy the ozone layer and has low GWP and to develop the fire suppression system. As a result of the test and research for inert gas agents and halocarbon agents, nitrogen and FK-5-1-12 were selected finally and have been tested and studies for three years. Thus, the optimal extinguishing agent and fire suppression system have been accomplished. The performance of the agent and system was tested according to KFI performance test technical standards for gas fire extinguishing system and the fitness of the agent and system for a fire was certified by Korea Fire Industry Technology Institute (KFI).