Impact of low O2 on fires

Abstract It is the thesis of this paper to show that through control of oxygen, fires can be markedly minimized or eliminated while still maintaining an atmosphere that will sustain human life. The driving force in this study is to decrease the fire hazard in manned capsules, such as in space, under the ocean, submarines, etc. which operate in an environment exceedingly hostile to life and from which escape is next to impossible. In most studies on fire, the earth's atmosphere with its 21% ( v v ) oxygen is almost a given and is not usually varied. But it takes both a fuel and an oxidizer to have a fire, and though we study extensively the impact of structure, composition, concentration, flammability limits, energies of ignition, propagation rates, etc., for the fuel component of the combustion process there is a significant paucity of information on the impact of variations of the oxidizer. In this paper, the oxidizer of choice is oxygen because we also want to sustain life, and one of the beauties of a totally closed environment is that the oxygen can be varied at will, and we can take advantage of that fact to minimize or quench fires while not jeopardizing life.