ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES WITH USING HYPOXIC AIR VENTING AS FIRE PROTECTION

摘要

The use of hypoxic air-venting system as fire protection is increasing and is sometimes used tornreplace traditional extinguishing systems or as trade-off with other mitigating measures. The oxygenrnlevel generally used is not lower than 15% since there is a need for personnel to remain in thernprotected area and a lower concentration could pose serious health risks. On the request of thernSwedish Radiation Safety Authority a literature review was conducted in order to determine therncurrent research status, advantages and challenges with the system as well as areas needing furtherrnresearch. The main fire protection advantages with a reduced oxygen environment are the reducedrnprobability of ignition, lowered heat release rate (HRR) and that activation of the system due to fire isrnnot needed. However at 15 % oxygen level risk for fire still exists and the system cannot be seen as anrnalternative to an extinguishing system. The reduced oxygen environment could also result in higherrnproduction rates of soot and smoke and the reliability of the system is uncertain and there is limitedrnknowledge regarding the effect of fuel configuration and fire behavior of products.