INFLUENCE OF WATER MIST AND ITS PARAMETERS ON FIRE SUPPRESSION.

Water mist systems are increasingly used in a wide range of applications. These systems play an important role in fire suppression, firefighting, and generally in combating the effects of fire. Water has the ability to reduce ambient, flame and fuel temperatures. It is also capable of wetting the fuel and preventing the spread of flames to unburned fuel. It has the ability to displace oxygen and combustible gases from an area, reduce the spread of radiant heat, or trap toxic or other particles from smoke. The effectiveness of water mist depends on its parameters. This article focuses on the most important ones, namely spray angle, water flow rate, flow velocity, working pressure, water mist droplet size, and also the temperature of the water source. The different parameters are interrelated and changing one parameter we can achieve a change in another parameter. It is necessary to keep in mind that it may not be the case that the highest or lowest values are the most effective. It is always necessary to determine experimentally or numerically the most effective value of a given parameter. At the same time, it is worth mentioning that it is not only the extinguishing agent that matters, but also the fuel that burns. With that said, the results cannot be applied in general and each fuel type may react differently to water mist. The paper describes the different parameters and the method we use to measure the droplet sizes of water mist, including the results from experimental measurements made using laser diffraction at the Technical University of Ostrava. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]