This study investigates the effects of obstacle conditions between a nozzle and a fire source on water mist characteristics and fire extinguishing performance through numerical simulations and experiments. Numerical simulations revealed that obstacles...
This study investigates the effects of obstacle conditions between a nozzle and a fire source on water mist characteristics and fire extinguishing performance through numerical simulations and experiments. Numerical simulations revealed that obstacles distort the local flow field, significantly influencing water mist characteristics and fire extinguishing performance. In particular, when the obstacle is present, large droplets formed by the dripping phenomenon dominate the accumulated droplet amount and have a great impact on fire extinguishing performance. Experimental results showed that increasing obstacle size led to an increase in droplet size and a decrease in droplet velocity beneath the obstacle. In addition, the droplet number and volumetric flow rate increased near the obstacle with increasing obstacle size, whereas the influence of obstacle size became negligible with increasing distance from the obstacle. Fire extinguishing experiments demonstrated that, for the block ratio<1, the extinguishment time increased with increasing block ratio due to a reduction in the exposed fire area. for the block ratio≥1, the extinguishment time initially decreased with increasing block ratio owing to enhanced droplet concentration and volumetric flux; however, a further increase in block ratio resulted in a longer extinguishment time because of reduced droplet velocity.