Fire extinguishers – Processes – Of extinguishing fire
Patent
1996-05-08
1998-09-22
Pike, Andrew C.
Fire extinguishers
Processes
Of extinguishing fire
169 9, 137209, 417103, A62C 3502
Patent
active
058100911
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method and an installation for fighting fire, in which a number of hydraulic accumulators are utilized for delivering extinguishing liquid to a number of spray heads or sprinklers.
The extinguishing liquid is usually driven out of the hydraulic accumulators by means of propellent gas, which is preferably nitrogen gas, though air can be used as well. The propellent gas shall generally be capable of having an initial charging pressure of about 100 bar.
Necessary pressure gas containers or bottles are mainly charged in advance somewhere else than where they are used. Accordingly, there is always a certain risk that the propellent gas is wasted, e.g., due to a leakage, before the fire-fighting installation is actually needed. On land, this does not generally imply any larger problem, while on ships and objects comparable with them, which lack necessary charging equipment, this risk is not considered acceptable.
The object of the invention is to eliminate this problem.
The procedure according to the invention is mainly such that, at a first stage, the hydraulic accumulators are filled with gas up to available pressure, and subsequently at a second stage, the accumulators are filled with liquid under a desired initial charging pressure, so that the liquid compresses the gas to the desired initial charging pressure.
There are preferably a number of liquid containers connected in parallel and a number of propellent gas containers likewise connected in parallel to the liquid containers, whereby the propellent gas of the gas containers is arranged to drive the liquid out of the liquid containers. At such an installation, the preferred procedure is that, at the first stage, all liquid containers as well as all propellent gas containers are filled with gas with available pressure, and subsequently, liquid is pumped into the liquid containers so that the liquid drives the gas out of the liquid containers and into the propellent gas containers, whereby the pressure in the propellent gas containers rises in proportion to the amount of gas from the liquid containers to the gas containers.
Accordingly, if the total volume of the liquid containers is for instance double as big as the volume of the gas containers, it is possible to achieve in this way a propellent gas pressure which is usable for fire-fighting and three times as high as the gas pressure available otherwise.
On ships, for instance, there is usually no available gas having a pressure higher than about 35 bar, i.e., so-called start air for diesel engines, etc. Thanks to the invention, this start air can charge the drive unit of a fire-fighting installation to a pressure of about 100 bar without difficulty.
When air is used as propellent gas in a hydraulic accumulator unit for fire-fighting, it is usually not desirable that the propellent air flows with the extinguishing liquid to the seat of fire. This can be avoided by providing the liquid containers with floating bodies closing an outlet aperture for the liquid after the containers have been emptied of liquid. For this purpose, the floating bodies may be provided, e.g., with conical elements, which penetrate into the liquid outlet aperture when the container is empty and plug it up. The floating bodies are preferably provided with corresponding elements also on the gas side for securing that liquid does not penetrate into the propellent gas containers while the liquid containers are filled.
The invention will be described in the following in greater detail with reference to a preferred embodiment shown in the attached drawing.
In the drawing, a drive unit of an installation for fighting fire is indicated by reference numeral 1. The drive unit comprises four liquid containers 2 and two propellent gas containers 3; the number of the containers 2 and 3 may vary as desired. In the drawing, the drive unit is ready for use with the containers 2 entirely filled with liquid and with the propellent gas containers 3 charged to a pressure of about 100 bar. At an activation, the gas con
REFERENCES:
patent: 4520871 (1985-06-01), Miller et al.
patent: 5253682 (1993-10-01), Haskett et al.
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