Advanced Fire Protection Deluge System

This project involved the development and testing of an ultra high speed fire protection deluge system for U.S. Army Ammunition Plants. The system was capable of detecting and extinguishing munition fires in milliseconds. A prototype system was built using dual band IR and combination UV/IR optical fire detectors, high speed pressurized water discharged from 10L and 30L spheres, and follow-on pressurized water from standard nozzles as found in existing plant and arsenal systems. The prototype system was tested for fire detection and suppression with 1/4 to 1/2 lb samples of eight different pyrotechnic compositions. They ranged from benign to very energetic compositions including smoke, first fire, illumination mixes and IR decoy flare mix. Each material was tested with each of the four detectors. Approximately 100 total evaluations were accomplished in Phase I. The three dual band optical detectors and the UV detector were also subjected to extensive false alarm stimuli testing. These stimuli included floodlights, flashlights, neon drop lights, sunlight, chopped light (flood light and drop light sources), drill motor (with sparks), and MIG and stick welding (mild steel, aluminum, stainless steel) with various currents and rods. Data was directly measured from observations recorded on a 1000 frame per second high speed camera and a data recorder. Data recorded included: detectable event, detector alarm, sphere discharge time, sphere water on hazard flame time, follow-on water discharge and fire suppression time.Air Force Research Lab Tyndall Afb Fl Materials and Manufacturing Directorate is the author of 'Advanced Fire Protection Deluge System' with ISBN 9781423556602 and ISBN 1423556607.