Laboratory study on the suppression of smouldering peat wildfires: effects of flow rate and wetting agent
Muhammad A. Santoso
A , Wuquan Cui A , Hafiz M. F. Amin A , Eirik G. Christensen A , Yulianto S. Nugroho B and Guillermo Rein A C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Mechanical Engineering and Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
B Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, 16424, West Java, Indonesia.
C Corresponding author. Email: g.rein@imperial.ac.uk
International Journal of Wildland Fire 30(5) 378-390 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF20117
Submitted: 28 July 2020 Accepted: 4 February 2021 Published: 9 March 2021
Journal Compilation © IAWF 2021 Open Access CC BY
Abstract
The application of water, or water mixed with suppressants, to combat wildfires is one of the most common firefighting methods but is rarely studied for smouldering peat wildfire, which is the largest type of fire worldwide in term of fuel consumption. We performed experiments by spraying suppressant to the top of a burning peat sample inside a reactor. A plant-based wetting agent suppressant was mixed with water at three concentrations: 0% (pure water), 1% (low concentration), and 5% (high concentration), and delivered with varying flowrates. The results showed that suppression time decreased non-linearly with flow rate. The average suppression time for the low-concentration solution was 39% lower than with just water, while the high-concentration solution reduced suppression time by 26%. The volume of fluid that contributes to the suppression of peat in our experiments is fairly constant at 5.7 ± 2.1 L kg−1 peat despite changes in flow rate and suppressant concentration. This constant volume suggests that suppression time is the duration needed to flood the peat layer and that the suppressant acts thermally and not chemically. The results provide a better understanding of the suppression mechanism of peat fires and can improve firefighting and mitigation strategies.
Keywords: experiment, fire, firefighting, mitigation, peatland, smouldering, suppression, wetting.
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