160621 Experience of Shipboard firefighting with Cutting Extinguishers (v 1.0)

Experience of Shipboard firefighting with
Cutting Extinguishers
© 2012-16 Cold Cut Systems
MAST Amsterdam, June 21, 2016
Anders Trewe, CCS, SE

Cobra Cutting Extinguisher
 Background & Concept
Cutting Extinguishing
Method on Swedish Navy
Vessels
Redundancy?
Ship fires using Cutting
Extinguisher
Summary and Conclusions
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0.

The Cobra Water Jet Spray

coldcut™ cobra concept
Safer Firefighting from an external position
Rapid, Efficient & Effective Interventions
Minimizing Collateral Damages and Environmental Impact

HMS Queen Elizabeth

HMS Queen Elizabeth
Risk reduction management
Babcock uses two sets of cobra units to de-risk operations
onboard the HMS QE in conjunction with test runs of engines
and turbines.
Pre-determined Cobra Attack Points (CAPs) have been
identified and marked on board.
Crew from Scottish FRS (SFRS) is operating the cobra units
on board the HMS QE during construction/commissioning
The training of method and operation for SFRS has been
carried out by Fire Service College and Northampton FRS
The project is a joint effort by Babcock, SFRS, FSC/NFRS and
Cold Cut Systems.

Defining Stealth at Sea
Visby Class Stealth Corvettes

Emerging Arenas - Atalanta Operation
Corvettes HMS Malmö and HMS Stockholm

Municipal FRS and more…
> 1000 units delivered since 2003
Recent deliveries
 Amsterdam, 5 units
 Newcastle, 11 units
 Greater Manchester, 47 units
 Swedish Coast Guard, 3 units
 Havariekommando, DE, 5 units
 Lincolnshire FRS, 23 units
 Northampton FRS, 23 units
 Greater Gothenburg, 5 units
 Czech Republic National FRS, 30 units
 Bangkok FRD, 10 units
 etc…

Cobra in numbers
C330D Marine Unit (C360H Maritime kit)
Pressure and flow
Nozzle: 260 bar
Pump: 30 (or 60) liters per minute
Fire main water (sea water)
Piercing times
8 minutes of cutting time
(30 lpm, 10 l abrasive vessel)
3 mm mild steel: 3-4 sec
10mm mild steel: 30-40 sec
8 mm LWC: <10 sec
Dimensions, C330D Marine Unit:
Weight: 510 kg, L x W x H: 800 x 1200 x 1500
Power
C330D: 21 kW diesel engine
C360H: 40 kW hydraulic motor

Basics - Five main parts
1. High pressure
water pump
2. Abrasive vessel
3. Hose reel with
high pressure
hose
4. Hand lance
5. Control system
31
4 2

Basics – Genral function

Cooling
“Cutting” is not the secret – how you introduce water is!
Water is one of the best medium to quench fires:
Ideally, 1 litre of water needs 2.3 MJ to vaporize
A 2.3 MW/s energy release can be absorbed by 60 litres
of water per minute
What is the main parameter for enhancing cooling
efficiency?

Droplet Size
Sauter Mean d32, by practical measurement
Saline or surfactant additive reduces the d32 to down to 110μm

Mechanics of Cobra water
Droplet size (d32): 170 micron (traditional: 1000 micron)
Water speed (nozzle): 220 m/s
Droplet size – heat extraction,
 efficiency 5:1 to traditional
Heat radiation absorption,
 efficiency 5:1 to traditional
Steam – reducing oxygen concentration
 21%, 13%, 7%
Droplets airborne time, lifetime example 400 C
 100 micron: 0.2 sec, 30 mm
 1000 micron: 230 sec, 680 meter

”Clinical gas cooling test”
Room size:
4.6 x 11.8 x 2.6 m
Gas heated room to
>450 degrees by
4MW source
Heating turned off as
intervention started
Cobra (300 bar, 55 lpm) versus “enhanced low pressure” (40 bar, 100 lpm) and
“alternative cutting extinguisher” (100 bar, 40 lpm). Pump pressures.

Typical temperature development
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
TemperatureC 35 litres, ~1 minute, 4 MW diesel fire, semi-ventilated
in 20 foot container (34m3), penetration at t=12 min
Temperature
Time (min)

Cobra Deployment
unventilated compartment

Abrasive introduction
Suspension and Entrainment
Suspension introduce the abrasive between the pump and the
hose
 This allows the operator to continuously and repeatedly pierce
through constructions at the point of incident for 8 minutes before
replenish. Replenish will take place at the main pump/module
Entrainment systems introduce the abrasive at the hand lance
 Due to energy losses The entrainment system uses >3 times more
abrasive and >3 times more time to pierce the same construction as
suspension;
 This requires a logistics line to be set up from abrasive supply to
operator
 Replenish will take place at the operator, by the point of incident
Piercing 5 mm steel ”S355”
Suspension: 0.35 kg abrasive in 7.8 seconds
Entrainment 1.18 kg abrasive in 29 seconds

coldcut™ cobra tactics
Scan
Cool
Clear
Progress

coldcut™ cobra tactics - Scan
Find hot spots (TIC, DCS, etc)
Illustration from report “CFD simulations of the Cutting extinguisher”, before attack,
SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden 2014

coldcut™ cobra tactics - Cool
Cool compartment
Illustration from report “CFD simulations of the Cutting extinguisher”,
SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden

coldcut™ cobra tactics – Clear & Progress
BA-Attack/PPA
Reclaim Compartment
Illustration from report “CFD simulations of the Cutting extinguisher”, 60 s of Cobra attack,
NB: For safe internal intervention, temperature should be reduced to approx. 100 C

1 MW fire - Geometry
Illustration from SP report “CFD simulations of the Cutting extinguisher”, 60 s of Cobra attack,
Temperature readings in Plane A, Cobra Attack in Plane B
4 MW and 8 MW fires in larger rooms also covered in the report.

Example of SOP on SE Navy ship
All FF should be preceded by preventive fire
protective measures such as built-in and
mobile fire protection, routines, training and
evaluation, maintenance etc.
A Standard operating procedure includes:
1. Early Detection - Alarm
2. Initial Attack - First Attack
3. Containment & Control - Second Attack
4. BA-Attack - Safe Re-entry Procedure
Reclaim compartment

Predetermined Attack Points
Pre-determined cobra attack points (CAP) are part of
the firefighting tactics
They support faster and safer interventions
Certain criteria are taken into consideration:
 Plausible fire starters
 Avoiding critical installations
 Deck construction
 Accessing the CAPs
 Numbering of CAPs

Cobra Attack Points - CAPs
Predetermined CAPs are
placed:
 On doors and hatches
 On weather deck
When positioning CAPs on
doors and hatches:
 They are placed high (on doors)
 If doors and hatches are
numbered, the CAPs need not to

Mapping the CAPs
From Stern to Aft
Even numbers on port
side
Shows fire sections
DCO uses this numbers
to give command to
second attack

Cutting extinguisher method:
Addresses many requirements
Very little exposure to fire and smoke – Safety first!
Uses small quantities of water
 less collateral damage
Supports lean manning
Early fire gas cooling within the affected zone through a short
intervention time
 prevents fire development and structural weakening
Quick knock down of concealed fires
 no breach of the hull is required
Mitigation of risk for the re-entry team
 lower temperature, less risk for back draught etc.
Provides excellent redundancy for fixed installed fifi-systems

Redundancy for fixed installed fifi systems?
While doing research, I noted several malfunctioning
fixed installed fifi-systems in cases studied
In 2012, IMO issued MSC.1/Circ.1432
This circular introduced new guidelines for the
Maintenance and Inspection of water mist, water spray
and sprinkler systems
It says: “7.5.17 test a minimum of two automatic
sprinklers or automatic water mist nozzles for proper
operation.”
A company recognized by the Bahamas Maritime
Authority did sprinkler tests accordingly…

Result of tests
Both of the minimum two sprinklers failed
Further tests were done, more failed
BMA made a test program:
 Basic testing: 2 sprinklers in 10 sections
 Extended testing: The extent is based on the failure rate at
basic testing
More sprinklers failed – up to 1/3 of tested sprinklers –
of various types (hi/lo pressure), and various suppliers
Clogging, deposits, corrosion of internal components…
Manufacturers advise water quality as root cause, but
only one of three define “clean water”

Findings
Clogging, deposits, corrosion of
internal components…

Implications
IMO response
 Amendment of to incorporate testing guidelines and
water quality analysis
 Recommend Amendment the FSS Code requiring
manufacturers to pay special attention to water quality
CLIA (industry) response - focus groups:
 Design, engineering, arrangement and approvals for new
ships
 Retrofit enhancements for existing
 Operation, inspection and maintenance of new and
existing ships
Immense number of installations involved

Cobra Cutting Extinguisher
 Background & Concept
Cutting Extinguishing
Method on Swedish Navy
Vessels
Redundancy?
Ship fires using Cutting
Extinguisher + two FRS
references
Summary and Conclusions

Referece #1 – NFRS, UK
Pharmaceutical industry 2009

Production Areas
High Bay
Warehouse 2
Offices
High Bay
Warehouse 1
Loading
Bay
Aerial
Aerial
Aerial
COBRA
PPV & COBRA

Referece #1 – NFRS, UK
Fire out
Time of call: 8:46
Time of stop message: 18:53
48 hours, back to work in unaffected areas

Reference #2, Halmstad FRS, SE
Domestic house fire 2011
Scan,
Cool,
Clear,
Progress

Container ship fires
Situations
 Relatively large and hard to get fires, of which two
generated by explosions by destabilized chemicals
 CO2 in hold, no fixed fifi-system on deck
 Cobra available late in progress of fire
Main objectives (of cobra)
 Advance or hold positions against the fire through cooling
individual containers

Yang Ming Green - 2006

Charlotte Maersk - 2010
Malacka Strait, July 7th 2010, Cobra deployed T+5 days

MSC Flaminia - 2012
17th July
9th September

Ro-Pax – car deck
Situations
 Fire on vehicles on car deck
 Unknown goods, fuel, tires, etc
 Fixed sprinkler may contain, but not extinguish
 Cobra late in fire progress (Vincinzo Florio)
Main objectives
 Cool/extinguish singular fires in cars
Possible solutions
 Cobra onboard to combat fires when detected
 Redundancy system for fixed installed firefighting systems

RoPax – Vincenzo Florio - 2009
May 2009 - loss 25%, Euro 20 000 000

RoPax – Lisco Gloria - 2010
October 2010 - Total loss: Euro 68 000 000

Compartment fires
Situations
 Initially limited fires
 Firefighting alongside
 Cobra available through FRS
Main objectives
 Hold delimitation lines
 Cool compartment fires
 Mitigate backdraft
Possible solutions
 Cobra onboard to combat fires when detected
 Redundancy system for fixed installed firefighting systems

Unidentified situation in port boiler room
Port Starboard

Cooling the boiler room
Data from MAIB report and interview with MIRG officer in charge
Fixed systems engaged
 High pressure mist
system engaged
manually (Automatic
start malfunctioned)
 Low impact of
temperature reduction
Kent FRS’s Cobra
engaged approx. 4-5
hrs after fixed systems
 Significant temperature
reduction within 30 min.
 After 1,5 hrs (45 min
active) of Cobra use, the
room was deemed safe
to enter with BA
Temperature in exhaust > 400 C
Boiler temperature estimated to 1200 C

Conclusions
Cobra made significant impact on
 On containing, cooling and/or extinguishing fires in containers
and compartments
 In mitigating backdraft prior to re-entry
Cobra would have made great benefit to outcome on if
available on board
 To contain and facilitate extinguishing of vehicles
 To act as redundancy for malfunctioning fixed fifi systems
Training and scenario exercise of combined resources is
of essence
Redundancy to fixed systems should be considered
 Cobra cutting extinguisher is an option

www.coldcutsystems.com
Thank you for your time and patience!
Anders Trewe, CCS, SE
Questions?

160621 Experience of Shipboard firefighting with Cutting Extinguishers (v 1.0)

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