EXAMINATION AND COMPARISON OF EXISTING HALON ALTERNATIVES AND NEW SUSTAINABLE CLEAN AGENT TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPRESSING CONTINUOUSLY ENERGIZED FIRES

This paper describes the results from testing the effectiveness of halon alternatives in extinguishing a tire scenario representing continuously energized electrical equipment. Three likely modes of failure in telecommunications facilities have been identified and three fire tests to examine these scenarios have been developed.’ Objectives of this study were to replicate and verify that extinguishment could be accomplished using HFC-227ea design concentrations at and slightly lower than the minimum cup-burner level and to assess the ability of 3M Company’s experimental product L-15566 in suppressing tires using the Conductive Heating Test protocol from their report. An additional goal was to evaluate the effect of a constant electrical arc or ignition source above the sample using these same extinguishing agents and design levels.