BFRL ICON Sparse Water Sprays in Fire Protection.

pdf icon Sparse Water Sprays in Fire Protection. (11265 K)
diMarzo, M.

NIST GCR 96-687; 252 p. June 1996.

Sponsor:

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

Available from:

National Technical Information Service
Order number: PB96-202304

Keywords:

water sprays; fire protection; drop size measurements; evaporation cooling; fire research; fire suppression; solid surfaces; thermal conductivity

Abstract:

A comprehensive review of the findings that punctuated ten years of research on dropwise evaporative cooling is presented. The first studies consider a single droplet evaporating on a high thermal conductivity, solid surface. The solid-liquid coupling is addressed when considering the case of a low thermal conductivity solid. A powerful, non-intrusive, infrared thermographic technique is instrumental in describing the thermal behavior of the solid surface. The applications relevant to fire suppression suggest the imput of radiant heat from above the surface instead of heat conducted through the solid. Once the single droplet behavior is fully documented experimentally and accurately modeled, the study of sparse water sprays is undertaken. A superposition model is formulated which well represents the experimental data.

Selected Papers




Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899