Enhanced Foaming and Super Spreading for Next Generation Fluorine-Free Firefighting Foams, C. Dutcher, U Minn

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Class-B firefighting foams are aqueous foams that spread over liquid fuel and extinguish fires. Recent regulations require per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS)-free formulations for these fire suppressants. However, identifying non-PFAS surfactant or surfactant mixtures that combine the necessary low surface tensions against fuel and air to form an aqueous film is a significant hurdle; hence new paradigms and formulations to suppress fuel fires are urgently needed. This talk will highlight the aims and current efforts to aid in the identification and development of PFAS-free firefighting formulations from mixtures of soluble mixed charged surfactants, which are capable of synergistically lowering the surface tension and the critical micelle concentration. Fundamental rheology-based design principles for formulating surfactant systems that enhance foam stability against coarsening and coalescence will be presented. In addition, results to date for characterizing foam stability, film spreading, and surfactant thermodynamic and transport properties using capillary micro tensiometers and microfluidic platforms will be shown. Experimental results will be coupled with thin film fluid dynamic modeling.

Dr. Cari Dutcher is a professor of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and materials science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her research interests are in complex fluids and multiphase flows, including emulsions, suspensions, aerosols and foams. Cari is currently the Vice President Elect of American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) and an editor with Aerosol Science and Technology. She has also been principal investigator on several Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) projects characterizing oily bilgewater emulsion and fluorine-free fire-fighting foam stability and destabilization, with a focus on the fundamental role of surfactant transport, rheology, and flow on these dynamic multiphase processes. Dr. Dutcher has published over 85 peer-reviewed papers, and has received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the AAAR Kenneth T. Whitby Award, and the SERDP WP Project of the Year Award. Dr. Dutcher has a BS degree in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.