Development of new generation automatic fire suppression systems for vehicles

Fires in vehicles cause loss of many lives and property. Within the scope of this thesis; various extinguishing systems have been examined and investigated in all aspects. Combustion, extinguishing and cooling studies were carried out for lithium-ion batteries and battery packs which are used in electric vehicles the use of which are rapidly increasing in the world. The trials were classified as LIT-A, LIT-B, LIT-C, BUS, IM and MET trials. Total of twenty-six trials were conducted. In these trials; lithium-ion batteries and packs, a scrap bus and an operational heavy-duty machine were used. Various fire extinguishing products have been tried including water, aerosol, carbon dioxide, boron-based and fire extinguisher ball. As part of this study, a system with dual detectors has been designed as an automatic fire extinguishing system. In addition, a control panel was designed in order to automatically intervene in fires. In the experiments; it was observed that the aerosol was successful in extinguishing and did not leave any residue afterwards. On the other hand, CO2 and fire extinguishing ball could not achieve the desired temperature decrease in fire extinguishing trials. It has been determined that boron-based fire extinguishing/cooling products are particularly successful at the beginning of thermal runaway and in lithium-ion batteries that tend to burn. It has been observed that boron-based products will be effective in both extinguishing and cooling in the future vehicle world.