Analysis of Fire and Non-Fire Signatures for Discriminating Fire Detection.
Analysis of Fire and Non-Fire Signatures for
Discriminating Fire Detection.
(646 K)
Milke, J. A.; McAvoy, T. J.
International Association for Fire Safety Science. Fire
Safety Science. Proceedings. Fifth (5th) International
Symposium. March 3-7, 1997, Melbourne, Australia, Intl.
Assoc. for Fire Safety Science, Boston, MA, Hasemi, Y.,
Editor(s), 819-828 pp, 1997.
Sponsor:
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD
Keywords:
fire research; fire safety; fire science; fire
detection; carbon dioxide; carbon monoxide; fire
signatures; large scale fire tests; light obscuration;
small scale fire tests; oxygen; temperature
Abstract:
The characteristics of an improved fire detector which
promptly reacts to smoke while discriminating between
airborne signatures from fire and non-fire sources can
be identified by considering signature patterns of each
group of sources. Discrimination is accomplished by
comparing signature response patterns of each group of
sources. Discrimination is accomplished by comparing
signature response patterns from fire and environmental
sources collected in small- and large-scale tests.
Airborne signatures are produced in the tests from a
variety of conditions: flaming, pyrolyzing and heated
samples, and nuisance sources, such as aerosols,
household products and cooked food. The signatures are
described in terms of light obscuration, temperature,
CO, CO2, O2 concentrations and signals from metal oxide
sensors. An expert system was developed by a neural
network and a multivariate statistical method to
distinguish between fire and non-fire sources. In
addition, the presence of a flaming or non-flaming fire
can be identified despite the injection of signatures
from nuisance sources which could mask the fire
signatures.
