Fire Fighting Foam
Fire-fighting foam is a foam used for fire suppression. Its role is to cool the fire and to coat the fuel, preventing its contact with oxygen, resulting in suppression of the combustion. Fire-fighting foam was invented by the Russian engineer and chemist Aleksandr Loran in 1902.
The surfactants used must produce foam in concentration of less than 1%. Other components of fire-retardant foams are organic solvents (e.g., trimethyltrimethylene glycol and hexylene glycol), foam stabilizers (e.g., lauryl alcohol), and corrosion inhibitors.
Low-expansion foams have an expansion rate less than 20 times. Foams with expansion ratio between 20 and 200 are medium-expansion. Low-expansion foams such as AFFF are low-viscosity, mobile, and able to quickly cover large areas.
High-expansion foams have an expansion ratio over 200. They are suitable for enclosed spaces such as hangars, where quick filling is needed.
Alcohol-resistant foams contain a polymer that forms a protective layer between the burning surface and the foam, preventing foam breakdown by alcohols in the burning fuel. Alcohol-resistant foams should be used in fighting fires of fuels containing oxygenates, e.g. MTBE, or fires of liquids based on or containing polar solvents.
Read more about Fire Fighting Foam: Class A Foams, Class B Foams, Applications, History of Fire Fighting Foams
Famous quotes containing the words fire, fighting and/or foam:
“In England if something goes wrong—say, if one finds a skunk in the garden—he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.”
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)
“Was man made stupid to see his own stupidity?
Is God by definition indifferent, beyond us all?
Is the eternal truth man’s fighting soul
Wherein the Beast ravens in its own avidity?”
—Richard Eberhart (b. 1904)
“Only the white, tremendous foam of the street has any importance,
The new white flowers that are beginning to shoot up about now.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)