Extinguishing performance of alcohol-resistant firefighting foams on polar flammable liquid fires

Abstract

The protection of polar flammable liquid storage tanks from fire is an important matter related to the safe production of enterprises and to the safety of people’s lives and property. Although the foam fire-extinguishing system has long been the main means for the fire protection of flammable liquid storage tanks, the influence of the physical properties of polar flammable liquids on the fire-extinguishing characteristics of alcohol-resistant foams has not been well studied, which causes many problems for engineering design. In the present work, 14 kinds of polar flammable liquids were used to carry out non-ignition tests and alcohol-resistant foam fire-extinguishing tests. The results show that water-miscible and water-immiscible polar flammable liquids exhibit significant differences in their interactions with the alcohol-resistant foams under non-ignition conditions. A lower specific gravity and a higher heat of combustion of polar flammable liquids will result in a longer time needed for fire control, and a higher saturated vapor pressure of polar flammable liquids will result in a longer time needed to extinguish the edge fire. In addition, the tests show that the forceful application of alcohol-resistant foams is not conducive to extinguishing fires involving polar flammable liquids and cannot even control the fires.