May, 2010: UTeC Test Labs, Hallowell, Kansas
May 26, 2010 automatic detection and N2 Generator explosion suppression tests conducted with the US Army (TARDEC) and UL representatives in attendance at UTeC Labs in Kansas, USA .
We extinguish the explosive fire approximately two to three times faster than an equivalent armor vehicle halon or HFC explosion suppression system and N2 does not create toxic hydrogen fluoride decomposition gases like our halon and HFC counterpart systems do.
N2 fire systems create a greater margin of survivability to soldiers inside armor vehicles either during a false fire system discharge or while under actual military attack.
Download UTEC CORPORATION Letter (PDF)
Notes:
- Two x 6″ long by 6″ diameter N2 Generators mounted in the opposite left and right corners of the 130 cubic foot lexan test booth. The left N2 Generator was activated 40 milliseconds after the explosive fire was detected and the second N2 Generator was activated 100 milliseconds after the first N2 Generator.
- The 130 ft3 Lexan test booth which replicates the inside of an armour vehicle.
- To the left hand side of the booth we have 100 psi supplied air to gasoline fuel mix spray nozzle which blows across a heat ignition sparker to ignite an explosive fire ball inside the test booth with the spray nozzle supply valve being left open for 2 full seconds and the sparker igniter left on for 3 full seconds.
- The explosive fire is detected in approximately 2 milliseconds, a delay of 40 milliseconds was programmed into the N2 release control box and we extinguish the three explosive fires in approximately 55 to 173 milliseconds after activating the first 6″ long N2 Generator.
- You will notice our N2 Generators create a 100 % clean nitrogen wind turbulence down along the inside walls of the protected space using a military N2 diffuser, thus removing the flame from the fuel and extinguishing the explosive fire.
- Our N2 Generators also inert the protected space down to approximately 15.7 % oxygen per volume, at a 2 psi pressure increase and an ambient noise level increase to approximately 138.8 decibels for 150 milliseconds inside the test booth.
The latest automatic detection and N2 Generator explosion suppression tests were conducted at UTeC Labs in Kansas as witnessed by US Army (TARDEC) and UL & ULC representatives on May 25 and 26, 2010.
During four of the N2 explosion suppression tests conducted on May 26, three times we used two 6″ long by 6″ diameter N2 Generators inside the 130 cubic foot lexan fire test booth which was built as a replica of a test booth constructed by the National Research Council of Canada (“NRC”) 2007 study of “Explosion protection in a small compartment, using HFC explosion suppression systems”.
On May 26, the N2 Generators extinguish the explosive fire faster than the HFC counterparts used within the NRC 2007 test report. As well, when the two N2 Generators were discharged within 100 milliseconds of each there was no re-ignition of the three test fires, during our military specified 2.2 second pressurized fuel spray and three second continued electrical ignition source.
The explosive test fires were extinguished and kept suppressed at a 15.2% oxygen per volume level and noise level maximums of 139.5 decibels by the N2 Generators which were each mounted with a N2 military diffuser.
There was zero HF generation during the tests because the N2 propellant formulation contains no fluorine.
The NRC 2007 study recorded levels of up to 11,000 ppm of HF generation during their explosion suppression tests; these levels of HF can easily kill a man. They also used HFC concentration levels of 7% in an empty space whereby if the space was congested with equipment and men like inside the crew compartment of an armor vehicle, then the concentration of the HFC fire agent could conceivably rise to a 10% per volume level of gaseous HFC fire agents which has caused heart attacks in laboratory test dogs in the past.
We also discharge our N2 Generators inside crew compartments using an N2 military diffuser which has two single lines of discharge ports to direct the nitrogen gas down along the inside walls of the armor vehicle and not directly into the faces of the soldiers inside the armor vehicle, such as many existing HFC systems do presently installed inside armor vehicles.
Two 6″ long by 6″ diameter N2 Generators were mounted in the opposite left and right corners of the 130 cubic foot lexan test booth. The left N2 Generator was activated 44 milliseconds after the explosive fire was detected and the second N2 Generator was activated 100 milliseconds after the first N2 Generator.
To the left hand side of the booth we installed a 100 psi supplied air to gasoline fuel mix spray nozzle (re: NRC 2007) which blows across an electrical ignition sparker to ignite an explosive fire ball inside the test booth with the spray nozzle supply valve being left open for 2.2 seconds and the sparker igniter left on for 3 full seconds.
The explosive test fire was detected in approximately 2 milliseconds, a delay of 44 milliseconds was programmed into the N2 releasing panel and using two 6” long N2 Generators for each of three tests on May 26, we extinguished the fire in 160 to 185 milliseconds which is faster than the NRC 2007 HFC test fire systems.
The ideal N2 Generator explosion suppression system consists of more than one generator inside a crew compartment and is fired in series immediately after the first generator has discharged.
The third 100 millisecond delayed, multi 6” N2 Generator test on May 26 included two obstacles placed within the test chamber; the two 6” N2 Generators extinguished this fire in 160 milliseconds.
The NRC – HFC explosion suppression systems could not extinguish the obstacle test fires in their 2007 test report. During the fourth test on May 26 we used a 10” long by 6” diameter N2 Generator mounted to discharge its N2 agent down along the ceiling towards the fuel spray nozzle directly across on the other side of the booth.
We also left the two obstructions inside the test booth during this test; the explosive fire was again extinguished in record time and there was no reignition of the flame.