Experimental Investigation of the Suppression of Crown and Ground Forest Fires

Results of experimental investigations on the suppression of the flame combustion and thermal decomposition of forest combustible materials by aerosol flows of a pure water and aqueous solutions are presented. The characteristics of some sprayers were determined and the densities of wetting of a fire hotbed, provided by them, were calculated. The times of extinguishing hotbeds of model crown and ground forest fi res were measured, and distributions of temperatures and heat flows in them were determined. It is shown that the efficiency of extinguishing a forest fire is mainly determined by the sizes of the aerosol droplets acting on it.