The Sound Fire Extinguisher, which utilizes sound propagation characteristics, can be a suitable alternative to the changing fire fighting environments. The sound fire extinguishers that were implemented by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Ag...
The Sound Fire Extinguisher, which utilizes sound propagation characteristics, can be a suitable alternative to the changing fire fighting environments. The sound fire extinguishers that were implemented by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2012 and George Mason University in 2015 cannot be almost available in actual environments due to the several problems. The problems that the existing sound fire extinguisher are: First, since the sound energy of the existing Sound Fire Extinguishers spreads all the ways, it has failed to transfer the energy to the flame, effectively. Second, it generates massive low-frequency noise that can cause some physical and mental damage to the persons that are fighting to extinguish a fire. Third, large speakers, amplifiers, heatsinks, and etc. are needed to output the very high powered sounds so that the sound fire extinguishers are large and heavy. In order for the Sound Fire Extinguisher to be used in an actual environment, the problems of the existing Sound Fire Extinguisher must be solved.
In this study, several signal processing techniques were applied to improve the problems of the existing Sound Fire Extinguisher. First, the special acoustic lens applying the horn effect was used to concentrate and resonate the sound, forming the sound beam to focus the sound forward. In addition, as an improvement of the speaker, a flat type cone speaker was applied to enlarge the main lobe and reduce the side lobe. Second, the use of the Active Noise Cancellation(ANC), the special acoustic lens, and the flat type cone speaker was able to reduce the 30 dB or moreover noise. Third, the improved method, which is applying the electromagnetic drive type speaker, can secure 500W when the speaker is 2Kg while the conventional speaker outputs 150W when the speaker is 1.5Kg. In addition, the FET pulse oscillator and amplifier that output the pseudo sinusoidal wave were developed and applied. The conventional TR oscillators and amplifiers can output 100W when 0.5Kg, while the developed oscillator and amplifier can produce 500W for 0.2kg weight. Also, while the TR amplifier needed a very large and heavy heat sink, the FET Pulse amplifier need only a heat sink of 100g or less.
In this study, we conducted research, parallelly, on how to apply the sound characteristics of the Sound Fire Extinguisher to actual environments. In the fire fighting field’s view, there are confirmed many effects of the Sound Fire Extinguisher such as "cooling effect", "ignition suppression effect", "flame direction control effect", "phenomenon that is smoothly transmitted even in a narrow space", "phenomenon that is smoothly propagated even in an environment where the wind blows" and etc. Such effects of the Sound Fire Extinguisher can be used in various methods for fire prevention and evacuation as well as fire extinguishing.
Through this study, high power, miniaturization, and light weight of the Sound Fire Extinguisher were achieved, and proposed various methods of using the Sound Fire Extinguisher applied to the fire fighting field. The Sound Fire Extinguisher has the great advantage of controlling flames without polluting fire extinguishing objects. However, since it does not pollute the fire extinguisher object, it may cause problems that are easy to re-ignite. There is also a disadvantage that the control power is week in the combustion of the solid surface. In order to overcome these shortcomings, additional methods to use in combination with other fire extinguishing techniques that have the opposite of the merits and faults of Sound Fire Extinguisher should be studied.
In addition, further improvements to the Sound Fire Extinguisher require the development of a new type of speaker, as well as the study of a new cone material that is light, fire-resistant and has good output characteristics.