• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.71-76
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• 2012

The coflow velocity effect on the minimum extinguishing concentration(MEC) was investigated experimentally in heptane cup-burner flames. Various inert gases($N_2$, Ar, $CO_2$, He) were added into the oxidizer to find the critical concentration and the effectiveness of the agents on flame extinction. The experimental results showed that the MECs were increased with increasing coflow velocity for most inert gases except helium, but the higher coflow velocity induced the lower burning rates of heptane. This indicated that the increase of coflow velocity resulted in the decrease of fuel velocity evaporated from fuel surface, and hence the stain rate on the reaction zone was also decreased. In the case of helium as a additive, the extinguishing concentration was independent of the coflow velocity because the heat conductivity was ten times larger than the other inert gases and flow effect by a strain rate might be compensated for heat loss to the surroundings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2009

Extinguishing limits of laminar ethylene/oxygen flames in both normal and inverse co-flow jet burner have been determined experimentally and computationally. An inert gas($N_2$, Ar, $CO_2$) was added into the oxidizer to find the critical concentration and the effectiveness of the agents on flame extinction. The experimental results showed that the physical aspect of inert gases was main mechanism for flame blow-out as same as cup burner test, but the flow effect should be considered to determine the extinction concentration. The numerical prediction was performed with modified WSR model and the result was in good agreement with the measurements. The experimental and numerical methods could be used for the assessment of various flame suppression agents such as minimum extinguishing concentration.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.541-546
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• 2003

Experimental vapor pressure measurements available in the literature for the inert gases have been rigorously analyzed and used to evaluate the constants A, B, C, D, and exponent of the following equation in the form of reduced vapor pressure and reduced temperature : $InP_r=A+{\frac{B}{T_r}+CInT_r+DT_n^r}$ According to varying exponent n all four constants have been obtained for the inert gases by the error analysis. This has provided us the best n and four constants for each of the inert gases ; Argon, krypton, xenon, helium, and neon. In order to obtain the calculated vapor pressure by the above equation, only the normal boiling point and the critical pressure and critical temperature are necessary to get the vapor pressure for an overall average deviation of 0.31 % for 406 experimental vapor pressure points consisting of five gases available in the literature. The average deviation for argon, krypton, and xenon is 0.24%, 0.09%, and 0.22%, respectively, for neon 1.31% and for helium 0.61%. These results are not unexpected in view of the significant quantum effects associated with helium and to a lesser degree with neon.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.9-17
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• 2004

The values of physical properties of the inert gases of Ar, $N_2$, $CO_2$ were calculated by the empirical equations. The regression coefficients were obtained by the experimental data and the resulting calculated values. For the empirical equation with a lower regression coefficient, a new correlation was suggested. At an atmosphere pressure, the empirical equation was confirmed by the experimental values for the viscosity, density, saturated pressure, and surface tension of Ar, $N_2$, $CO_2$. The correlation coefficients of the empirical equations proposed in this work was higher than 0.99.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.20-25
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• 2012

The purpose of the study is to assess the extinguishing concentration of inert gases in engine nacelle fire. The experiment was performed with a two dimensional rectangular bluff body stabilized flames, where the fuel was ejected to counter flow and co-flow against an oxidizer stream. Two inert gases, $CO_2$ and $N_2$, were used for extinguishing agent in the oxidizer and methane was used for fuel. The main experimental parameters were the direction of injecting fuel, the kinds of agent and the velocity ratio between air and fuel streams, which controlled the mixing characteristic near bluff body and the strength of recirculation zone in the downstream. The result shows the flame structure and the mode were strongly dependent with fuel/air ratio and the fuel jet direction. For both flow configurations, the extinguishing concentration of $CO_2$ was smaller than the $N_2$ because of the large heat capacity of $CO_2$. However, the concentration of inert gasesat blowout was much smaller than those in the cup burner and coflow jet diffusion flames, which implies that the extinction mechanism of bluff body stabilized flames was mainly due to the aerodynamic aspect. Compared to co-flow fuel injection, the extinguishing concentration of inert gases under counter flow configuration was lower. The effect of direction might result from the mixing characteristic and strength of recirculation zonearound a bluff body. More details should be investigated for the characteristic of recirculation zone in the wake of bluff body using the LES(Large Eddy Simulation).

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.12-19
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• 2004

The commercially available IG-541 extinguished agent composed of inert gases was developed for environmental protection. The extinguished agents were considered in terms of physical properties, efficient characteristic, environment, stability, and economical efficiency. The pure and mixture components of physical properties of $N_2$, Ar and $CO_2$ were chosen and compared. The physical properties of density, viscosity and surface tension of inert gases were plotted with the molar ratios of $N_2$/$CO_2$ and Ar/$CO_2$ in terms of a temperature. The extinguished agent in the composition of $N_2$, Ar and $CO_2$, 50/40/10 (mol %) showed relatively high density, low viscosity and moderate surface tension, therefore it was suitable for the alternative extinguished agents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.27-31
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• 2009

An experimental study on the unsteady effect of the extinction limit was performed in ethene jet diffusion flames. To impose the unsteadiness on jet flames, the amplitude and frequency of a co-flow velocity was varied, and the two inert gases, $N_2$ and $CO_2$, were used to dilute the oxidizer for extinguishing concentration. The experimental results shows that large amplitude of velocity induces a low extinguishing concentration, which implies that flow variation affects the blow out mechanism. Also, the flow oscillation effects under high frequency attenuates the flame extinction. These results means that flow unsteadiness extends the extinction limit and finally minimum extinction concentration by inert gases. When the Stoke's 2nd Problem is introduced to explain the flow unsteadiness on extinction concentration, the solution predicts the effect of amplitude and frequency of velocity well, and hence it is concluded the effect of low frequency velocity excitation was attributed only to flow effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.22 no.3 s.81
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• pp.34-38
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• 2007

The experiment was done to investigate extinguishing concentrations of different inert gases of verying concentrations made in contact with Kerosene. The experimental results obtained are as follows; at a standard amount of air flow was 40L/min, the extinguishing concentration of Argon, Nitrogen, Carbon dioxide and Helium for Kerosene were 36.5%, 27.3%, 17.4%, 12.3%, respectively. And, according to these results, Helium of 12.3% showed the lowest extinguishing concentration.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2013.06a
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• pp.73-76
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• 2013

The inert gas dilution effect for the stability of a stratified propane premixed flame has been experimentally studied. The addition of inert gases to a stratified premixed flame, which used to be very stable without dilution, makes a flame unstable. The lower equivalence ratio on the outer premixed flame and the lower fuel flow rate through the inner nozzle were observed to be the more stable conditions for the stratified premixed flame with nitrogen or argon dilution. It has been interpreted with the flame structure change such as shift of stoichiometric ratio region in a flame.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1996.06a
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• pp.149-149
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• 1996