Portable fire extinguishers (PFEs) are a key component of spacecraft emergency response systems. The International Space Station uses custom PFEs to meet the unique microgravity and enclosed space requirements of the vehicle. For future missions, terrestrial commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) PFEs may offer more economical solutions. Depending on the design and layout of the targeted locations and chosen commodity, however, reduced gravity may affect the performance of terrestrial PFEs (e.g., two-phase systems). To better characterize the potential of using COTS hardware, two terrestrial PFEs, one charged with HFC-227ea pressurized with nitrogen gas and one charged with carbon dioxide, were modeled to predict performance in both 1-g and microgravity environments. Testing was conducted in 1-g in best and worst case configuration to validate the model. Here we provide a detailed description of the model, report the methods of PFE testing, and discuss the predicted effects of microgravity on PFE performance.
Abney et al. (Sun,) studied this question.