Feasibility Study to Develop a Water Deluge System for Conveyor Lines Transporting High Explosives

The feasibility of developing a prototype water deluge system capable of extinguishing fires in bulk flake explosives after a 60-lb detonation was demonstrated using off-the-shelf commercially available components. The basic elements of the system include 1 a fast response UV fire detection tube and logic circuit, 2 a rupture disk water valve, 3 water piping, and 4 spray nozzles. The water deluge system was actuated less than 20 ms after 60-lb detonation located 25 ft from the detector. Narrow stream nozzles were used with each nozzles protecting 3 ft wide area ranging from 15 to 45 ft from the nozzle assembly. No blast damage was sustained by the prototype system in full-scale tests. Bench-scale studies included measurement of flame spread rates for flake TNT and evaluation of the UV detector tube sensitivity to TNT and Composition-B fires. The cost of a prototype system was estimated and it is concluded that substantial cost savings may result by the development of advanced technology components.