Citation

Liu Z, Kim AK, Carpenter D, Kanabus-Kaminska JM, Yen PL. Fire Technol. 2004; 40(4): 309-333.

Affiliation

Fire Research Program, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; CAFS UNITS Inc., Arcadia, Callifornia, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1023/B:FIRE.0000039161.18616.86

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A series of full-scale experiments were conducted in a mock-up commercial cooking area to study extinguishing mechanisms and effectiveness of water mist against cooking oil fires. The impact of water mist characteristics, such as spray angle, droplet size, flow rate, discharge pressure and type of nozzle, on the effectiveness of water mist against cooking oil fires was investigated. A series of oil splash experiments were also conducted to determine if the oil was splashed by water mist. In addition, the change in oil composition during heating and fire suppression was determined using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) technique. The study showed that cooking oil fires were very difficult to extinguish, because they burned at high temperature and re-ignited easily due to changes in oil composition during heating and fire suppression. The water mist systems developed in the present work effectively extinguished cooking oil fires and prevented them from re-ignition. The spray angle, discharge pressure, and water flow rate were important factors to determine the effectiveness of water mist in extinguishing cooking oil fires.