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What should be considered when designing a clean agent suppression solution?
It is important to consider certain criteria when designing a clean agent solution. Therefore, the design criteria are the parameters to be determined initially, prior to the development of a clean agent solution.
Clean agents are gaseous, non-electrically conductive extinguishing agents that evaporate when applied without leaving residues, being much more environmentally friendly than other options. Some types of clean agents are: Novec 1230, Ecaro 25 and FM 200, among others. There are five important factors or criteria that are fundamental when working with this technology, which are detailed below.
Criteria #1
Room Integrity
As a first foundation, the integrity of the room must be confirmed, this term refers to guarantee the airtightness of the room; to confirm this, it is necessary to perform a leak test, also known as leak test.
This test is a guarantee for the optimal service of a system or process, its main objective is to ensure the absence of leaks in any system involving fluids at pressures similar or different from atmospheric pressure, for suppression systems the test is popularly known by the name of door fan test.
For a gas extinguishing system to be effective, it is necessary to reach a minimum concentration, called the extinguishing concentration, which is normally increased by a percentage of 30% to provide a safety coefficient, thus reaching what is called the design concentration. These concentrations are normally given in volume, and there is a direct equivalence between the concentration and the amount of extinguishing agent to be discharged per m3 of volume to be protected (depending on the expected ambient temperature and pressure in the room).
In this way it can be ensured that the discharge of a certain amount of extinguishing agent in an enclosure, calculated to reach the required concentration, produces the extinguishing of the fire and ensure that, after the discharge of the agent, it will have a residence time in the environment; The clean agents work under a principle known as total flooding, which means that the discharge is complete, all the agent inside the cylinder is expelled and floods the room to be protected, i.e. the clean agent reaches every point of the room through the nozzles in a gaseous form due to the nitrogen pressurization process.
The aim is not only to suffocate the fire, but also to provide additional protection to prevent the resurgence of a new outbreak of fire, that is why the clean agent after unloading, must remain in the environment for a minimum of 10 minutes.
For this to be guaranteed, it is necessary that the room is as airtight as possible, since if there are openings, leaks, open doors during unloading, open windows, open air conditioning grills, the clean agent will leak and will reduce the effectiveness of the solution.
Criteria #2
The second important factor to consider is the type of hazard being protected. The basic hazards that can be protected are Class A hazards, such as cardboard, paper, plastic; Class B hazards, flammable liquids and substances; and Class C hazards, energized electrical hazards. There are certain products that are not recommended to be protected with clean agent, some chemicals, such as gunpowder, reactive metals such as lithium, metal hydrides, substances capable of undergoing thermal decomposition.
Criteria #3
Room volume.
The second important factor to consider is the type of hazard being protected. The basic hazards that can be protected are Class A hazards, such as cardboard, paper, plastic; Class B hazards, flammable liquids and substances; and Class C hazards, energized electrical hazards. There are certain products that are not recommended to be protected with clean agent, some chemicals, such as gunpowder, reactive metals such as lithium, metal hydrides, substances capable of undergoing thermal decomposition.
Criteria #4
Altitude.
The fourth factor is to know the meters above sea level at which this solution is installed. The higher the altitude, the lower the atmospheric pressure, this means that the clean agent in vapor state must overcome less resistance from the atmosphere in order to expand. Therefore, the higher the altitude, the lower the amount of clean agent needed.
Criteria #5
Minimum enclosure temperature.
The fifth factor is the lowest expected temperature in the enclosure, since the lower the temperature, the greater the amount of clean agent needed for the correct operation of the system at the time of a discharge. If the temperature of a liquid drops, this liquid will absorb more gases that are around it, if the temperature drops, the clean agent in liquid state will absorb a part of the nitrogen that is inside the cylinder, so the cylinder pressure will drop, being contradictory to the reason why a cylinder is pressurized, whose function is to give outlet pressure to the clean agent in liquid state through the pipe and at the time of being expelled by the nozzles pass to gaseous state.
In order to perform the design, installation, service and maintenance of clean agent extinguishing systems, the NFPA standard requires that it be carried out by specialists in this technology. Halocarbon agent systems designed for concentrations should be permitted in normally occupied enclosures. In no case should the maximum exposure exceed 5 minutes. In spaces that are not normally occupied by a halocarbon agent system designed for higher concentrations and where there is a possibility that personnel could be exposed, means should be available to limit exposure times.
In summary, at Edintel we have 3 types of clean agents which are: Novec-1230, FM-200 and Ecaro 25, these solutions are available, and can be used for any of the verticals in which Edintel works, the same are mentioned below: hospital sector, industry sector, hotel sector, Oficentro, airports, banking education.
