Fire Extinguisher Using Acoustic Waves

Aleena Ann Philip, Anu Shaji, Eldo Sam Roy, Treesa Thomas, Rekha Subash

acoustic flame, acoustic pressure, fire, fire extinguisher, frequency.

Fire is a particularly feared hazard. Therefore, a fire extinguisher is very important equipment. Unfortunately, existing fire extinguisher has some drawbacks such as using a chemical compound which is dangerous and it leaves a residue. Current extinguishers contain different kinds of chemicals depending upon their application. Generally, they are pressurized with Nitrogen or Carbon-dioxide (CO2) and when this pressure released on the fire, it extinguishes the fire. There are many such asphyxiating and extinguishing agents like water, potassium bicarbonate, foam etc. All these agents have a common property of leaving by-products behind it. The waste materials generated by these methods can be toxic and harmful. Innovative methods are necessary to minimize the generation of this waste. The need for innovation and modernization in fire extinguishing techniques is extremely necessary. The existing techniques have been created considering only their efficiency in extinguishing fires and not considering the harms they can cause to the environment. Study shows that sound waves could be one of the potential alternatives for extinguishing fires. Acoustic pressure and air velocity produced from a speaker is the fundamental concept used to explain how sound waves put off flames. In this project, we proposed a new method using the sound wave to extinguisher fire. Our method was using a speaker and a converging tube to focus the sound wave to overcome the fire energy and thus put the fire down. The aim is to develop a portable fire extinguisher to study and analyzes the effect of different frequency of a sound wave on flames. Experiments are conducted to find a suitable frequency range to extinguish the flame and to analyze the acoustic-flame interaction.