Advancing Fire Suppression for Mega-Class Mining Vehicles

ADVANCING FIRE SUPPRESSION FOR MEGA-CLASS MINING VEHICLES
November 29, 2023 Kristin Ryczek: North American Mining Magazine

Innovative, single-agent fire safety solutions can simplify installation, activation and clean up when protecting heavy-duty industrial mobile equipment from fire risk.

Since the 1950s, fire suppression solutions have become more sophisticated to match the ever-growing complexity of ultra- and mega-class mining vehicles. Capable of moving hundreds of tons of material, these industrial vehicles have bigger parts, contain larger engines, carry larger quantities of fuel and, consequently, present a higher fire risk than standard industrial vehicles.

While dry chemical systems have been the go-to for fire protection on large, industrial vehicles since the 1950s, dual-agent systems emerged in the 1990s to better protect ultra- and mega-class giants. Despite the availability of an FM-approved, single-agent system, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards require the use of a twin-agent suppression system in ultra- and mega-class equipment with “hydraulic systems containing more than 150 gallons in the lines.”

Dual-agent (or twin-agent) systems use both dry chemical and liquid agents in a single design. The dry chemical agent rapidly knocks down flames, and the liquid agent cools hot surfaces and minimizes reflash potential. However, the suppression benefits these dual-agent configurations provide come with additional complexity – including costly clean up and repairs after a dry chemical discharge, careful planning for side-by-side installations, and the need to activate two separate systems simultaneously.

These challenges, in addition to shifting regulations regarding the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), emphasize the need for a new, non-fluorinated fire suppression solution that simplifies fire protection while meeting the needs of today’s heavy-duty industrial vehicle operations.

Testing an innovative new solution
The latest evolution of firefighting technology has the potential to provide extraordinary performance for ultra- and mega-class earthmovers, exceed the capabilities of previous systems and simplify fire suppression system design.

The ANSUL Vehicle Systems fire team recently conducted extensive testing to evaluate the effectiveness of a new, non-fluorinated single-agent liquid system versus some of the leading single-agent and twin-agent setups currently used in the industry.

According to the Queensland Mines Inspectorate, 60% of fires on turbocharged diesel engines resulted from hydraulic or engine oil spraying on the turbocharger, 11% were caused by engine fuel contacting the turbocharger and 13% from turbocharger failure. With these statistics in mind, the chosen fire test protocol required agents to achieve the following:

Suppress fire through a pressurized fuel spray.1
Cool a superheated surface (simulating a turbocharger, manifold, etc.).
Extinguish a fuel pool fire that could potentially be caused by fire/fuel propagation in real-world scenarios.
Prevent flame reflash.
Tackling any one of these four objectives is difficult, but the protocol used incorporates all of them into a single test. What makes this test especially challenging is that the suppression agent is sprayed horizontally at the vertical reignition plate and must, therefore, suppress and secure the pool fire by indirect coverage.

Click here for the full article from North American Mining Magazine.