Study of the thermal stability of foam of different expansion ratio

Introduction. Currently, the industry produces a wide range of foam generators to produce fire-extinguishing foams, and the foams they produce differ significantly in their expansion ratio and, consequently, fire resistance. Since heat fluxes have the main destructive effect on the foam, the purpose of this paper is to establish the patterns of destruction of foam of different expansion ratio when heated.

Methods of research. The foam with expansion ratio from 7.5 to 80 was used for the tests. It was obtained by mechanical beating of 6 % solution of foaming agent PO-6RZ. The thermal stability of the foam was studied when the heat flow from the gas burner flame affects the foam layer. During the experiment, the change in the height of the foam column in time was recorded.

Results and Discussion. The results of measurements, presented in the form of dependence of foam layer destruction rate on time, quantity of released liquid phase on 1 m²·s, dependence of foam layer destruction rate on its density allowed revealing a number of patterns. The destruction rate of foam with an expansion ratio of up to 30 remains constant throughout the entire duration of thermal exposure. As the foam expansion ratio increases, the rate of destruction at the initial stage of heat flux exposure increases. With a foam expansion ratio of more than 50, there is initially a sharp increase in the rate of destruction, which subsequently decreases as the foam column decreases. In the conditions of the experiment, the best characteristics were shown by the foam with an expansion ratio of 50, because in the foam with a smaller expansion ratio the syneresis makes a significant contribution to its destruction, and the foams with a larger expansion ratio are destroyed by the mechanical effect of convective flame flows.

Conclusion. The study of the foam destruction patterns under thermal impact allowed establishing the fact that its destruction is limited by the rate of impoverishment of the upper layers with liquid.

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