Reliability study of an emerging fire suppression system

Abstract

Self-contained fire extinguishers are a robust, reliable and minimally invasive means of fire suppression for gloveboxes. Plutonium gloveboxes are known to present harsh environmental conditions for polymer materials; these include radiation damage and chemical exposure, both of which tend to degrade the lifetime of engineered polymer components. The primary component of interest in self-contained fire extinguishers is the nylon 6-6 machined tube that comprises the main body of the system. Thermo-mechanical modeling and characterization of nylon 6-6 for use in plutonium glovebox applications has been carried out. Data has been generated regarding property degradation leading to poor, or reduced, engineering performance of nylon 6-6 components. In this study, nylon 6-6 tensile specimens conforming to the casing of self-contained fire extinguisher systems have been exposed to hydrochloric, nitric, and sulfuric acids. This information was used to predict the performance of a load bearing engineering component comprised of nylon 6-6 and designed to operate in a consistent manner over a specified time period. This study provides a fundamental understanding of the engineering performance of the