Lin Shaorun, Huang Xinyan
Research Centre for Fire Engineering, Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China.
MethodsX. 2020 May 28;7:100934. doi: 10.1016/j.mex.2020.100934. eCollection 2020.
Smoldering wildfire in peatlands is one of the largest and most persistent fire phenomena on Earth, which contributes importantly to global carbon emissions. However, very few studies are available on how to extinguish these smoldering wildfires. Herein, we develop an experimental method to explore the effectiveness of the water-based suppression on smoldering peat fire, and the proposed method can also be used to simulate fire suppression by rain. The low-temperature drying process avoids the variation of hydrophobicity of peat soil. The validation shows that the proposed approach can provide a wide range of water-spray intensities with time variation, and two examples of successful suppression of smoldering peat fire and flaming wood crib fire were presented.•The design of small-scale combustion reactor for peat can mimic the smoldering peat fire in the field.•The effectiveness of water-based fire suppression technologies on peat fire are explored in the lab.•The proposed method can evaluate the effect of rain and weather on suppressing the smoldering wildfire.
泥炭地闷烧野火是地球上规模最大、持续时间最长的火灾现象之一，对全球碳排放有重要影响。然而，关于如何扑灭这些闷烧野火的研究非常少。在此，我们开发了一种实验方法来探究水基灭火对泥炭闷烧火灾的有效性，该方法也可用于模拟降雨灭火。低温干燥过程避免了泥炭土疏水性的变化。验证表明，所提出的方法可以随时间变化提供广泛的喷水强度，并给出了成功扑灭泥炭闷烧火灾和明火木垛火灾的两个实例。
• 用于泥炭的小型燃烧反应器设计可模拟野外泥炭闷烧火灾。
• 在实验室中探究了水基灭火技术对泥炭火灾的有效性。
• 所提出的方法可以评估降雨和天气对扑灭闷烧野火的影响。
