Design of an Acoustic Fire Suppression Equipment

Utilizing Modulated Bass Frequency Signal

Mohammed B. Malubay Danielle Meg D. Mendoza

Electronics Engineering department Electronics Engineering department
ARIA ARIA
Caloocan City, Philippines Quezon City, Philippines
medmedmalubay@gmail.com Dmendozadan@gmail.com
Electronics Engineering department
ARIA
Brian Jerome B. Robles
Electronics Engineering department
ARIA Daryl Jastine C. Suganob
Caloocan City, Philippines Electronics Engineering department
Brian.Robles@gmail.com ARIA
Calumpit Bulacan, Philippines
Daryl.Suganob@gmail.com
Tetsunari I. Yabushita
Montalban Rizal, Philippines
Yabushitatetsunari@gmail.com,

Abstract — Conventional fire extinguishers are widely
used in order to suppress fire. However, these fire
extinguishers leave chemical residues, hazardous enough
that it could lead to casualties to human properties or lives.
Furthermore, these fire extinguishers can last only up to a
maximum of 25 seconds, which makes it less effective.
Therefore, the proponents have designed an acoustic fire
extinguisher to replace the conventional fire extinguishers.
The design utilizes bass frequency signal and sound
pressure which terminates the heat and disturbs the oxygen
from the fire tetrahedron to suppress the fire, and is
supported by a battery management system and a fire
classifying system to further improve the reliability of the
design. This design, upon testing, showed that a fire with an
area of approximately 1 square meter can be extinguished
in less than a second, provided that it is within the device’s
operating range of about 2 meters.
I. INTRODUCTION
For a fire to ignite, three factors are needed: heat, fuel and
oxygen. Once these three components combine, it results to a
chemical reaction that creates the flame. These three elements,
together with the chain reaction, make up the fire tetrahedron.
The absence of any of these factors will not complete the fire
tetrahedron.
Fire extinguishersModulator and as a first aid when there are
are being used
Amplifier
fire accidents. In order Circuit different classes of fire, a
to suppress
Speaker
variety of fire extinguishers were also being distributed in the
w/ a
market. According to the BFP, there are currently four types of
Collimator
fire extinguishers that are available in the country.
Although all of these fire extinguishers have proven their
effectivity in putting out fires ascribed to them, they also have a
number of shortcomings and drawbacks. Dry chemical fire
extinguishers tend to be messy and corrosive to metals because
of the residue it leaves. This fire extinguisher is not appropriate
to use in aircrafts and electronics because it can cause extensive
corrosion damage to airplane structure, electrical systems and
electronic equipment (Boeing). Exposure to this residue may
also cause irritation and breathing discomfort to the user.
Recent studies showed that sound waves also have the
capacity to extinguish a fire. The Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) first proposed the idea of controlling
a fire with sonic waves in 2008. They started the program Instant
Fire Suppression (IFS) to develop an extinguisher that can be
used for small places.
They discovered that the flames can be manipulated with
physical forces such as sound frequency. The acoustic field
produced from a specific low frequency increases the air
velocity and results to dwindling of the flame boundary layer
where combustion occurs. Furthermore, the acoustic field leads
to higher fuel vaporization, which widens the flame, but also
drops the overall flame temperature.
II. METHODOLOGY

Power
Management Flame,
and
Fire
 Variable Obs Mean Std. Dev Min Max
time_a 25 36.22912 32.45961 1.18 99.01
time_b 25 1.8004 0.56979 0.93 2.83
Table III-1. Summary Statistics of Length of Time to
Extinguish Class A and Class B Fire Types

Figure 5-2 shows that the average length of time in seconds to

extinguish class A fire type is longer compared to class B.
Class A also has a high value of standard deviation which
depicts that the data points have a wide spread of values from
the mean, while class B having a low value of 0.57 indicates
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework that the outcomes tend to be close to the mean.
Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of the design. The
entirety of the acoustic fire suppression system starts with the To give an illustration of the distributional characteristics of
three sensors namely the flame, temperature, and two gas the two classes in terms of length of time, box and whisker
sensors, which detects if there is fire within its range of plots are shown below, however, it can be seen that two
function. At the same time, these sensors will also determine separate box and whisker plots are graphed since the range of
the class of fire depending upon its characteristics. Therefore, outcomes are very different between class A and class B.
this will now determine either it is Class A or a Class B fire.
Upon determining, the sensors will trigger the modulator a) Box and Whisker Plots
circuit to produce either a Continuous Mode(CM) or a
discontinuous mode(DCM) to a Class B or a Class A type of
fire respectively. If it is in continuous mode, a low frequency
sine wave will be produced that will remove 2 characteristics of
the fire tetrahedron.
On the other hand, the discontinuous mode will send a
continuous, yet, pulsating sine wave that will remove the ember
on the material/s burning. The modulator’s signal will be
strengthened through the use of an amplifier. Also, in order for
the sound wave to travel further, a conical shaped collimator
will be utilized to increase the sound pressure and focus the
sound as well. A rechargeable power management system will
be utilized for the entirety of the system as well as for its longer
running time
Figure 3. Distribution plot of Time (in seconds) for Class A
III. DATA AND RESULTS

Figure 4. Distribution plot of Time (in seconds) for Class B

Figure 2. List of the data collected during testing

For class A type, the middle line represents the median and
1) Descriptive Statistics it’s leaning towards the bottom part of the box, indicating that
the distribution is positively skewed, meaning the bulk of the
observations are towards a shorter length of time to extinguish
class A fire. On the other hand, class B’s median line is
somewhat at the center of the box, indicating a symmetric [4]AspenCore, Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved from
distribution. ElectronicsTutorials: http://www.electronics-
IV. CONCLUSION tutorials.ws/amplifier/amplifier-classes.html

The main purpose of this project is to design a fire [5]DARPA. (2008-2012).” Instant FLame Suppression.”
suppression equipment utilizing modulated bass signal. The
Arlington Country, Virginia, United States.
system was designed to suppress fire using sound in a short
period of time. In order to accomplish the objectives of this
[6]Daw-as, A. C., Paca, E. D., & Navarro, G. M. (2010).” The
study, several experimentations were conducted and data
gathered were presented in the previous sections. Based from the Impact of Climate Change on the Philippine
acquired results, the main objective of designing of a fire Fisheries”: A Moving Direction Towards Full Access
suppression was achieved with the appropriate specifications. to Open Market Agenda. St. Louis University,
The overall design of the system based on the data and Baguio City.
results were proven that the device was able to extinguish fire
100% of the time in both class types for 25 trials, under the [7]”e-Gizmo Mechatronix Central. (n.d.).” Retrieved from e-
length of 3 minutes. This result shows that the device is indeed Gizmo
an effective mechanism in putting out fire, while controlling
other probable sources of variation as much as possible (e.g. [8]”Elite Fire Protection Ltd. (n.d.).” (Elite Fire Protection Ltd
distance of device from fire, same sizes of materials used for ) Retrieved June 22, 2017, from elitefire.co.uk
each trial).
The system was designed to be able to suppress both class A [9]”FIRE EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS'
and class B fire types. Based from the calculation modelling,
ASSOCIATION”. (2017). Retrieved from
simulations, and prototype testing, as well as from the results of
the data that was interpreted, it is proven to suppress fire within femalifesafety
a given time.
[10]JLesterP. (2014, March 15).” SMF corporation”.
V. RECOMMENDATION Retrieved from simplemachines forum
Upon the finalization of this project, the proponents were
able to successfully design and create an acoustic fire [11]Larson, J. (2015, December 29).” Audioholics”. Retrieved
suppression device. For future development of this project, one from Audioholics,LLC.
of the main aspects that could be developed is to look for an
alternative for subwoofer speaker basically because of its weight [12]NDT “Resource Center. (n.d.)”. Retrieved from
and size. Nondestructive Testing:
An innovation regarding on this subwoofer would be very
beneficial to the development of the entire device. Another one [13] Protection, B. o. (2017).” PINOYTOPTENS”. Retrieved
that could be innovated would be the power management of the from TOPTEN.PH
device along with power converters being utilized to be made
specially for this function thereby making its consumption and
charging be more efficient and tolerable while at the same time
increasing the efficiency.
VI. REFERENCES
[1]”Acoustical Society of America.” (2016). Retrieved from
acousticalsociety.org

[2]AKANKSH SARJI MOHAN RAM R K UTTUNGA H R.

(2016). “DEVELOPMENT OF PORTABLE FIRE
EXTINGUISHER USING ACOUSTIC". Belagavi,
Jnana Sangama, Machhe, India.

[3]Alexander, A. A. (2015, January). “Study of Sound Wave

as a Flame Extinguisher”. Seri Iskandar, Perak,
Malaysia.