NIOSH Mining Facility
Fire Suppression Facility |
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| The Fire Suppression Facility at the Lake Lynn Laboratory |
The Fire Suppression Facility (FSF) was constructed to evaluate the effectiveness of fire suppression systems for the extinguishment of diesel fuel fires. The fire tunnel is tee-shaped to simulate a crosscut off a main entry. The main entry is 153 ft long and the crosscut is 40 ft long. Each entry is 18 ft wide and 7 ft tall to simulate modern mine entry dimensions. The crosscut area and 75 ft of the main entry are fireproofed and instrumented with thermocouples, gas monitoring instrumentation, and video equipment to monitor fire tests in progress. The FSF has a 6000 gal closed water system, in which all water is collected, filtered, and stored for re-use, to comply with all environmental regulations. In addition, a 100 h.p., pneumatically controlled, variable speed mine fan was installed in the main entry for experiments under ventilated conditions.
The FSF has also been used to study the flammability of mine combustibles under realistic, full-scale conditions. Among the materials evaluated are hydraulic fluids, diesel fuel, noise materials, and conveyor belting. A burn pad was added to the facility in order to conduct full-scale equipment cab fire detection and suppression experiments.
Site: Lake Lynn Laboratory