Recent fire tests of commercially available water mist systems have shown that water mist technologies have the possibility of either replacing current fire protection techniques no longer deemed environmentally acceptable or providing new answers to problems where traditional technologies have not been as effective as desired. Water mist systems are being actively considered for a variety of fire protection applications. The proposed research will evaluate the feasibility of improving the performance of water mist fire suppression systems through the use of pulsed water flow. The Phase 1 research will include room scale testing of three generic water mist systems. These three systems will cover the range of spray characteristics produced by currently available water mist hardware. Parametric studies with extensive instrumentation will also be conducted. Information will be collected to serve as the foundation for the development of an extinction model which will be used as a design tool for real scale systems to be prototyped and tested in Phase 2. COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: It is anticipated that the innovation developed in this research will improve the performance of water mist systems by minimizing collateral damage, while reducing the cost, weight, and power requirements of the systems
