МКБ «Искра»

Portable fire control units for large areas and hard-to-reach places and conversion development

 

PROJECT OF AUTONOMOUS IMPULSE FIRE CONTROL UNIT

Project of the autonomous impulse firefighting plant

 

 

 

Full-scale tests of the autonomous impulse firefighting plant model (2001) 

   

 

 

 

The analysis of the accidents on the territory of our country vividly demonstrates an increasing number of major accidents leading to a considerable loss of human life and environmental disasters. The experience in accident response at Chernobyl nuclear power plant and chemical complex Jonava , in the main building of the engine plant JSC "KAMAZ" in Naberezhnye Chelny, when there was a plane crash in Irkutsk and transport aircraft An -124 "Ruslan " fell on residential areas , at the ammunition storage facilities in the Defense Ministry units  and railway accidents with rollover, burning oil-cars and wood storage places give evidence of  low efficiency of the traditional fire-fighting equipment in cases of large fires . The same situation is with forest fire extinction.

 

 

A review of domestic and foreign materials containing information on the development of new fire-fighting equipment clearly shows a tendency towards an increase in the amount of fire agent delivered to the place of fire, the productivity, the effective range of stream and power plant output which is required by today’s practice.  The analysis of parameters, implemented with the help of these systems, indicates the presence of limit values​ which determine the performance of feed rate ( up to 100 l / s) and range (60-80 meters ). The most important limit value is the power limit (300-350 kW) of a power plant, which in its turn is connected with clearance limitations and structural mass as a whole, as well as with the limitations, imposed by the theory of hydraulic turbulent streams dynamics. The creation of stationary liquid flow with higher energy parameters in the framework of classical technique is currently causing significant difficulties. It is much easier to solve this problem for a short period of time – i.e. to realize the impulse method of liquid supply.

 

ADVANTAGES OF IMPULSE PLANTS

 

Experimental works were carried out with the use of energy of powder gases of gas generators, developed by MDB `ISKRA`.

The main advantages of these systems are:

-        Instant readiness

-        Simple design and operation

-        High reliability (due to its simple design)

High energy characteristics of the fire-fighting composition stream at the outlet of the hydraulic giant (pressure and consumption) provide:

-      Quick extinguishing of fires on large areas (specifically defined by the capacity of tanks, which is determined in the process of design and development work)

-      Extinguishing of fires with high energy (warehouses, storage facilities, etc.)

-      Extinguishing of fires at a long range (up to 200 m) (inability to move closer to the fire source due to the relief, transport, high temperature and other restrictions).

   Field firing tests of the impulse plant experimental model produced the following results:

1) Extinguishing of 6500 liters of aviation kerosene spilled on the area of 500 m2 (25x20 m) with a foam solution feed rate of about 800 l/s was finished in 12 seconds.

2) Extinguishing of 20000 liters of kerosene spilled on the area of 1000 m2 (37x27 m) with a foam solution feed rate of 280-340 l/s was finished in 19-34 seconds.

3) The results of the tests confirmed the conclusion of the previously conducted theoretical analysis on the possibility of applying impulse foam firefighting technic which showed that due to the coverage of the fire extinguishing agent, the entire facilities of combustion sources increase the efficiency and reduce the fire extinguishing time as compared with the traditional methods (at the same flow rate).

 

There are no analogues of impulse fire extinguishing in the whole world.

The project of such a plant using tractor truck MAZ-537 and semitrailer 4M3AP-5247G was worked out in MDB `ISKRA`. It`s possible to use less powerful load lifting and overall vehicle chassis for the conditions of municipal economy. The module of the autonomous impulse extinguishing plant can be placed on a railway platform, jet boats and other vehicles.

 

 

 

FIELD OF APPLICATION AND PECULIARITIES

 

1.   1.  Extinguishing of large fires on large areas (oil stores, tank batteries, emergency filling) within the shortest period of time (seconds) from a distance up to 250 m. As a result of the plant usage, in addition to ensuring safety requirements for people, not only direct damage caused by fires but collateral losses can be reduced by means of cutting the number of firefighters and the quantity of fire technic involved in fire extinguishing.For example, during the extinguishing of fire on a rail tank in Omsk in 2000 there were 200 firefighters and 50 units of firefighting equipment involved. During the extinguishing of fire on a tank farm in oil-and-gas production department "Sergievskneft" there were 25 units of firefighting equipment, more than 300 firefighters involved and 12 tons of foam, the price of which is about 17 thousand rubles per ton.

2.    2.  Forest fire and peatery ignition extinguishing by spilling large areas of combustion (2-2.5 thousand m2) and organization of shelter belts near residential and industrial areas in case of direct threat of combustion.

3.    3.   Extinguishing of fires in tower buildings and facilities. The problem of water supply to any altitude is solved with the help of gas generators of various power capacities. So far, extinguishing opportunities at altitudes of over 60 m with the help of traditional firefighting means are limited. In case of fire in Ostankinskaya TV tower, manual means of water and foam firefighting were delivered only to elevation points of less than 70 m. In fact the fire was extinguished with the help of hand extinguishers. In general there were more than 2 thousand people, 269 units of equipment and 4 helicopters involved.

4.      4. Extinguishing of fires on sea (river) crafts and sea-based facilities. In particular, with the help of the impulse plant it`s possible to guarantee extinguishing of fires on sea crafts with large displacement, including navy, airborne and tankage fleet, as well as on oil and gas platforms on the shelves, especially in the seas of the Arctic Ocean , where due to environmental  conditions it is impossible to use firefighting fleet.

5.      5. Long-range is the use of such plants at nuclear power facilities and environmentally hazardous chemical production facilities.

 

 

VALVES

 

In early 1990s in the framework of the conversion program "MDB  ISKRA " was engaged in developing valves with disk flap and pneumohydrodrive with conditional opening area of valve of 80 mm, 100 mm, 125 mm and 150 mm(as most common). In 1991 constructor documentation was developed and a pilot batch was produced for both in-plant tests and full-scale tests (as part of dyeing-finishing equipment).

 

 

Technical specifications

 

 

Working environment                                   

 

 

aggressive chemical solutions,

water, steam,

oil-products

 

Process pressure                                             

1 mPa

Temperature of working environment       

40ºС - 150ºС

Port area                                                            

80, 100, 125, 150 мм

Shutoff classification                                     

II класс по ГОС 9544-75

Type of the drive                                             

 

pneumatic with driving spring or double-action

 

Compressed air pressure

0,4-0,63 mPa

 Mass of the drive                                            

11,2 kg

Specified life of the drive                            

20 000 cycles