Experimental study on vertical RPU fire suppression performance using water spray

•Two different spray angles are used to suppress wind-aided RPU fire.•Thermal radiation, carbon monoxide and smoke concentration are measured.•Water spray angle affects the RPU fire suppression effect.•Suppression effect with 30° spray angle is better than that with 0°.

A series of vertical fire suppression experiments are conducted using rigid polyurethane (RPU) material of dimensions 60 × 30 × 2 cm in the standard combustion chamber. Four different kinds of water spray fluxes (66.7, 80, 90, 100 ml/min) and two different spray angles (0° and 30°) are used to suppress wind-aided RPU fire. The thermal radiation, carbon monoxide concentration and smoke concentration are measured with water spray being applied or not. The results show that both of the maximum radiation and maximum smoke concentration appear to have minimum values with 90 ml/min water spray flux and 0° water spray angle. In addition, all the obtained values of the maximum radiation, maximum carbon monoxide concentration, extinguishing time and maximum smoke concentration with 0° spray angle are larger than those with 30° spray angle with the same water spray flux. That is, for the same water spray flux, the suppression effect with 30° spray angle is better than that with 0° spray angle.