Relationship Between Properties of Floating Systems and Flammable Liquids in the Stopping Their Burning Technology

Abstract

The contributions balance of isolation and cooling effects relative to the liquids surface to slow down their evaporation and to achieve safe vapor concentrations is determined. The influence of liquids characteristic temperatures and their water solubility on this process is considered. It is proven that the long-term effect of such means is provided by systems based on closed-pore floating solid materials (for example, foam glass, FG). It is proposed to increase the FG low isolation and cooling capacity either by coating it with an inorganic gel or by wetting it with water. Smaller evaporation retardation coefficients by gel were obtained for liquids with the higher water solubility. A 5–6 times greater cooling capacity of the wet foam glass than dry foam glass was obtained for both polar and non-polar liquids. A smaller cooling effect is observed for liquids with a higher vaporization heat and is similar for both the use of the dry and wet foam glass. It was found that for low-boiling non-polar liquids, the evaporation slowing down is more effectively achieved by using isolation effects, and for high-boiling polar and non-polar liquids – by using cooling effects. It is proved that the fire extinguishing effect by applying the foam glass layer on the flammable liquid surface occurs in a similar way for liquids with close equivalent cluster lengths and not flash temperatures.