Which is a characteristic of foam nozzles?

Nozzles

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  • Gladiator Mid-Range
  • Gladiator Tri-Flow
  • Gladiator High-Capacity
  • Gladiator High-Capacity Selectable GPM Nozzle
  • Gladiator Dual-Flow
  • Jet Pump Proportioning for Gladiator High Capacity Nozzle
  • Jet Pump Proportioning for Around the Pump Configuration

The range of Gladiator Nozzles include:

Mid-Range
Tri-Flow
High-Capacity
Dual-Flow

  • Excellent stream range and quality
  • SelectAir™ adjustable aspiration for optimum foam quality
  • Ring jet injection for complete foam mixing
  • Maximum nozzle performance with minimum foam stream fallout
  • Compatible with all major types of foam concentrates
  • Stream pattern fully adjustable
  • Excellent water fog pattern suitable for vapor cloud mitigation
  • Nozzle can be used without the pickup tube

The Gladiator® nozzle represents the latest advancement in foam fire fighting nozzle technology and delivers the most effective fire attack flexibility and performance. The Gladiator is the first self educting nozzle designed for foam or water with the ability to deliver quality foam with any foam concentrate.

Prior to introduction of the Gladiator, firefighters had to compromise between poor foam quality of a water nozzle or the inferior stream range delivered by an excellent aspirating foam nozzle.

Now you can have it all in a single package; nozzle range combined with excellent foam quality. The revolutionary design and unique foam producing characteristics make the Gladiator suitable for use with most types of foam concentrates; protein, fluoroprotein, AFFF, and AR-AFFF. The Gladiator’s unique Ring Jet™ foam injection system and Air Tunnel™ design combined with its discharge straightening vanes provide consistent foam mixing resulting in excellent foam quality and stream performance.

Although the Gladiator® can be adapted for use as a direct foam pickup nozzle it is specifically designed to be used with a remotely located jet pump proportioner.

What is firefighting foam?

Firefighting foam is used as a versatile fire suppression agent to fight multiple types of fires ranging from forest fires to petrochemical fires, as well as to prevent the ignition of materials that might cause a fire.

An obvious explanation for the increasing use of firefighting foam is that it can effectively lower the surface tension (or interfacial tension) between two liquids, between a gas and a liquid, or between a liquid and a solid.

Firefighting foam is nothing more than a compound of foam concentrate, water, and air in which organic solvents (i.e. trimethylene glycol and hexylene glycol) are added as a formula to reinforce its firefighting capabilities.

Which is a characteristic of foam nozzles?

Fire training exercise

To serve as an effective extinguishing agent, several different types of foam are produced and used for fighting fires caused by different types of fuels. Manufacturers also use stabilizers and corrosion inhibitors (Lauryl alcohol) to ensure that the foam expands steadily and effectively despite strong winds or down droughts.

Foams with different characteristics are used by fire departments for different purposes. For example, low-expansion foam, many believe, is the most common type of firefighting foam due to its rapid deployment and low viscosity that ensures a low expansion rate (less than 20-fold). The capability to cover large areas quickly is another reason why firefighters like to choose this type of foam.

Not only that, medium and high expansion foams have the expansion ratio of 20 to 100 and 200 to 1000, making the foam solution suitable for wide variety of applications ranging from fighting house fires to forest fires.

Despite their many applications, firefighting foams are generally classified as extinguishing agents for Class A (ordinary solid combustibles such as paper, wood, cloth, and some plastics) and Class B (flammable liquids such as alcohol, ether, oil, gasoline, and grease).

Other types of foams can also be used for the other two classes of fires (Class C and D), which is rare in the firefighting history.

As mentioned earlier, firefighting foams are designed to serve the purpose of lowering the surface tension. Therefore, Class A foam, developed in mid-1980s, is useful for fighting wildfires because it lowers the surface tension of the water, aids fire suppression, and prevents reignition.

This type of foam can penetrate the fuel to raise the moisture content, which assists in wetting and saturating Class A fires with water rather than using plain water. On the other hand, it is important to know about the downside of firefighting foams prior to any use. The ongoing investigation of PFOS contamination seems to suggest that they might be hazardous and need to be treated with caution.

What is an advantage of foam nozzles?

The increased expanded foam mass generated by the air-aspirating nozzle will give a more gentle application onto the surface of the alcohol liquid fire than will the non-aspirating nozzle.

What nozzle is used for foam?

The TF range of spiral nozzles are often used for foam suppression applications as they can be configured to distribute fluid over a very wide spray angle (up to 170 degrees) and they contain a broad spectrum of droplet sizes.

What is a disadvantage of using fog nozzles to apply fire fighting foam quizlet?

Fog nozzles can be used with foam solution to produce: low-expansion, short-lasting foam. What is a disadvantage of using fog nozzles to apply fire fighting foam? Operator error is more likely to produce lower quality foam.

How does a foam nozzle work?

Air is drawn into the nozzle through the Venturi effect. As the foam solution passes through the center of the nozzle, a low level of pressure is created, which allows the air to enter the nozzle. This process consumes energy. The more air that's drawn in, the more energy is consumed.