IG541 Inert Gas Fire Suppression System Apply in Subway

Summary

Underground rail transit is a new mode of transportation that alleviates road traffic pressure.

In fire safety work, there is a definite provision that where need to install a fire suppression system and where need to have fire other fire extinguishing equipment.

For the choice of fire suppression system, considering the particularity of underground rail transit, and considering environmental protection, safety, economy, and fire extinguishing efficiency, we suggest using the HFC-227ea fire extinguishing system or IG541 Inert Gas fire suppression system, There is no harm to humans.

Preface

Urban Underground railways are an important factor program of urban construction, it is the main arteries of urban transportation construction.

The municipal government invests heavily in underground railway construction, and the railway is normally built in the crowded strip of the city, to ease traffic pressure, as crowded with people so there is a certain risk of safety after the railway is built.

The railway/metro operates underground, so if the railway gets into an accident and causes a fire, then it will seriously harm people.

to avoid fire in the underground railways, according to the provision of <Code for Metro Design>, in the railway system the generator room, the engine room, the computer room, and the power distribution equipment area are easy to catch fire.

As the railway is a particular place-underground place when we measure fire suppression, we can not be able to use a water-based fire extinguishing device because water-based is hard to reach, we should use a smart gas fire suppression system, to ensure we can find the fire at its early stage and extinguish the fire in time, and minimum the loss.

1. Railway/Metro Station General Situation

1.1 Subway/Metro Project Overview

Take Metro 1 in Beijing as a sample, the construction of Metro 1 is normally designed to cross the main road, the setting railway station is normally at the location of the main road or supermarket which continues people’s travel and shopping. For example, the railway station, and the local supermarket shopping mall, so the metro is very important in the under-ground subway construction, the subway plays an important role in underground transportation in urban, and it is convenient for people’s travel every day and night.

Fire Safety in the subway is serious and important.

1.2 Design Scope

Subway fires not only cause huge damage to railway train equipment but are also harmful to human health. If one day the railway is shut down due to the fire, all train stations will be paralyzed.

2. Design Principles of Subway Fire Suppression

Subway fire protection design should use an auto fire suppression system and its device, the system should be automatic, manual control, and mechanical emergency start. At the same time, for the design of the manual control system, we should consider awareness and measurement for the miss-operation manual; the subway should have a different fire supervisor, and every fire zone use a separate total flooding fire suppression system.

3. Choice of Fire Extinguishing Media (Agent)

As the subway is driven by electric power when a fire occurs the water is not able to be used for fire suppression, only a gas fire suppression system is most suitable for the subway fire solutions, but as the subway is underground and crowded with people, so for choice of fire extinguishing media/agent we should use a fast rapid, effective, human-safe gas fire suppression agent.

3.1 Gas automatic fire suppression system

There is a definite requirement and provision for a gas automatic fire suppression system when fire extinguishing should ensure the subway’s operation is not affected, ensure the subway equipment will not be damaged, and extinguish the fire at its early stage. So an environmentally friendly fire extinguishing agent is an ideal extinguishing media for it, to extinguish the subway fire without air pollution and any hurt to the human body.

3.2 Choose IG41 fire extinguishing agent as extinguishing media in the subway

Considering the atmosphere environment, the halon 1301 is forbidden to be used as a fire extinguishing agent as it is pollution; co2 extinguishing agent can extinguish fire rapidly, but as the subway station and train carriage are narrow and CO2 will cause harm to human body, so co2 is also not suggested to use in subway; So consider of environment, fire extinguishing efficiency and Human Safety factors, gas fire suppression system for subway we choose to use FM200 fire suppression system or IG541 Fire Extinguishing System.

Considering from Environmental Protection Aspect, The index of ODP, GWP, and ALT are 3 important factors for environmental protection, the fm200 system and Inert Gas Fire Suppression system are both perfect.

IG41 Characteristics

Considering from Travel Safety Aspect, ig541 belongs to inert gas and is made up of nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide, their proportion is 52:40, these 3 gases normally occur in the atmosphere, so ig541 in the composition is taken as naturally clean gas; the ig541 has the following characteristics:

1. ODP=0.
2. GWP=0.
3. ALT=0.
4. Belongs to inert gas and is non-corrosive to electric equipment and facilities.
5. It is transparent, colorless, odorless.
6. Non-conductive.
7. Not have secondary pollution to the atmosphere and not have bad effects for humans.

So the IG541 is very suitable to use in the subway or metro as the main fire extinguishing system.

Considering from Usage Cost Aspect, the FM200 and IG541 Inert Gas fire suppression systems are the ideal fire extinguishing systems for the current subway system.

The cost system consists of product purchase cost, maintenance cost, and transportation cost. For the FM200 system, the product purchase cost is slightly higher, while for the IG541 system, the maintenance cost and transportation costs are slightly higher.

So comparison of the two, the cost them is more or less the same.

4. Conclusion

After various considerations and implementation results, the IG541 gas fire suppression system is finally the most ideal fire protection system for the subway we choose.

Considering many factors such as economy, environmental protection, safety, and efficiency, before establishing a better fire extinguishing system, the IG541 fire extinguishing system should be the most reasonable fire extinguishing system applied in railways or subways.

Colorless, odorless, and non-corrosive are the most advantages of subway fire project installation, engineering, and maintenance.

IG541 gaseous fire extinguishing agent becomes the first choice for the subway.