Experimental and Numerical Simulations of the Gas-Phase Effectiveness of Phosphorus Compounds

Published

February 2, 2015

Author(s)

Nicolas Bouvet, Gregory T. Linteris, Valeri I. Babushok, Fumiaki Takahashi, Viswanath R. Katta

Abstract

The effectiveness of phosphorus-containing compounds as gas-phase combustion inhibitors varies widely with flame type. To understand this behavior, experiments are performed with dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) added to the oxidizer stream of methane-air co-flow diffusion flames (cup-burner configuration). At low volume fraction, phosphorus is shown to be about four times as effective as bromine Br at reducing the amount of CO2 required for extinguishment; however, above about 3000 μL/L to 6000 μL/L, the marginal effectiveness of DMMP is approximately zero. In contrast, the diminished effectiveness does not occur for Br2 addition. To explore the relevant chemical kinetics in a simpler configuration, premixed burning velocity simulations with detailed kinetics are performed for DMMP addition to methane-air flames. Analyses of the numerical results are performed to understand the variation in the inhibition mechanism with temperature, agent loading, and stoichiometry, to interpret the loss of effectiveness for DMMP in the present experiments.

Citation

Fire and Materials

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Fire retardants, flame inhibition, DMMP, dimethyl methylphosphonate, gas-phase fire retardants.

Citation

Bouvet, N. , Linteris, G. , Babushok, V. , Takahashi, F. and Katta, V. (2015), Experimental and Numerical Simulations of the Gas-Phase Effectiveness of Phosphorus Compounds, Fire and Materials, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=917108 (Accessed March 14, 2025)