The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has created an interactive spreadsheet to help military personnel calculate the amount of chemicals needed to suppress ground and aerial vehicle fires.
NIST said Tuesday that the application is an updated version of the PROperties of FIre Suppressant SYstems (PROFISSY) tool, a Microsoft DOS-based computer program that works to determine how much fire-extinguishing agents can be combined with nitrogen to prevent unintended explosions.
The spreadsheet includes a link that will direct the user to NIST's Reference Fluid Thermodynamic and Transport Properties Database containing information about fire suppressants, environment-friendly halon alternatives and chemical and mixture properties.
Jiann Yang, deputy chief of NIST's fire research division, said he believes many U.S. military and commercial aircraft manufacturing companies have used PROFISSY to design and produce fire suppression systems.
“We've been using PROFISSY for many years to facilitate design of fire extinguishers for test and evaluation, especially with non-halon and low-GWP fire suppression agents where off-the-shelf products are not available,” said Steven Hodges, a member of the U.S. Army’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center Fire Protection Team.
Hodges added the branch is exploring the use of low global warming potential chemicals to put out fire.