Flammability of antifreeze agents for automatic sprinkler systems

This article evaluates several antifreeze agents for automatic sprinkler systems by focusing on the expected contribution of the combustion energy of such agents to a fire. Such an energy contribution could potentially result in an excessive number of sprinklers being activated and thereby overtax the capacity of the water supply. To investigate this, an analysis and experimental program were initiated involving several different antifreeze agents. The results of this study show that only two of the antifreeze solutions did not increase the intensity of the fire source compared to water only, namely calcium chloride and potassium acetate. The other antifreeze agent solutions that were tested resulted in a significant increase in fire heat release rate. In some cases, the energy released during the period of application was 1.5-2 times higher than that found when only water was used. These results correlated well with the analysis calculations.