MODELLING AND FABRICATION OF

ACOUSTIC FIRE EXTINGUISHER

PRESENTED BY

Tarang Yadav R15ME357

Zarar Ahmed. R15ME372
Yousuf Naseem R15ME332
Sonu Dad. R15ME375

Under the guidance of:

PROJECT WORK :- ME 871
Mr. Anil Melwyn Rego
GROUP - 31
Assistant professor
Department of Mechanical and Automobile engineering
Faculty of Engineering Christ University
Mission Vision Core Values
Christ University is a nurturing ground for an Excellence and Service Faith in God | Moral Uprightness
individual’s holistic development to make effective Love of Fellow Beings | Social
contribution to the society in a dynamic environment Responsibility | Pursuit of Excellence
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OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
• Introduction
• Problem Identification
• Objectives
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Plan Of Action
• Testing
• Results
• Conclusion
• Scope For Future Scope
• References

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1. INTRODUCTION
• The need of fire extinguishing techniques is vital as fire accidents are
catastrophic in nature, leading to unrecoverable loss.

• Sound wave could be one of the potential alternatives as fire

extinguishers.

• The acoustic waves from the pressure wave generator tend to

extinguish the flames.

• Experiments are conducted to study suitable sound wave frequency

range to extinguish flame and to analyse the acoustic-flame
interaction.

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2.0 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

• Conventional fire extinguishing techniques are non eco-friendly

as it produces ashes or solid byproduct.

• Fire extinguishers are trying to eradicate one of the elements of

the fire.

• Fire fighting in an enclosed space has always been a problem,

other than accessibility for the fire fighter to access the place,
accessing the water, carbon dioxide(CO2) or other fire
extinguisher technology to the closed space is a major
challenge.
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3.0 OBJECTIVES

• To find the frequency range that will be able to suppress an

open flame.
• To develop a sound focusing component (cylindrical and
converging).
• To develop a 2D and 3D model of the cylindrical and
converging collimator using SOLID EDGE software.
• To perform tests using cylindrical collimator and converging
collimator.
• To fabricate the prototype of the acoustic fire extinguisher.

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FABRICATED PROTOTYPE

Fig 1: Acoustic Fire Extinguisher

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BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM

Figure 2:-Proposed System

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Fire
There are four main classes of fire: Class A, B, C and D.
• Class A fires are those fuelled by materials that, when they burn, leave
a residue in the form of ash.

• Class B fires involve flammable liquids and gasses, such as gasoline,

kerosene, propane, and acetylene.

• Fires that involve energized electrical wiring or equipment's are Class

C fires.

• Flames in exotic metals, such as magnesium, sodium, titanium, and

certain organometallic compounds are in Class D fires.

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Sound
• Sound is a vibration that propagates as a mechanical wave of
pressure and displacement, through a medium such as air.

• Sound propagates through compressible media such as air and

water as longitudinal waves and as transverse waves in solids.

• The sound waves are generated by a sound source, such as the

vibrating diaphragm of a speaker.

• The sound source creates vibrations in the surrounding medium,

which propagate away from the source at the speed of sound,
thus forming the sound wave.

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Speaker [ Dual Voice Coil ]
• There are two types of speakers SVC and DVC.

• A Single Voice Coil has one voice coil and one set of terminals,
one positive (+) and one negative (-).

• A Dual Voice Coil has two voice coils, each with its own set of
terminals, it can be wired at two different ohm levels, unlike a
SVC which can be wired at only one ohm level.

• Frequency response 30-200 Hz

• Power Handling – 180- 360 Watts

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4.0 COLLIMATOR
• Collimator will increase the intensity of the sound wave to a
single point which will provide better results in suppressing
the flame.

• Cylindrical collimator is made by rolling aluminium

sheet,[Speed of sound through Al = 6320m/s]

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4.1 Cylindrical Collimator with speaker [2-D]

Fig 3:- 2-D diagram of cylindrical collimator

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4.2 Cylindrical Collimator with speaker [3-D]

Fig 4:- 3D model of collimator and speaker assembly

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4.3 Converged Collimator with speaker [3-D]

Fig 5:- 3D model of Converged Collimator

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4.4 Converged Collimator with speaker [2-D]

Fig 6:- 2-D diagram of cylindrical collimator

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5.1 LITERATURE SURVEY
1. Prof. Colin H. Hansen, ”Fundamentals of Acoustics,” in Occupational
Exposure to Noise: Evaluation, Prevention and Control, Dortmund, SPON Press,
2001, pp. 23-39.
• Sound waves are made by displacing air; this is how a speaker creates sound. Flame
requires three things to burn, fuel, oxygen and heat and we hope to deprive two of
these things using sound waves. We believe that at a certain frequency the sound
waves will displace enough air and cool the flame.

• Sound travels in waves, which are simply variations of pressure in a medium—

whether solid, liquid or gas. The energy from vibrating objects, such as speaker
membranes, moves from particle to particle in the air in a repeating pattern of high
and low-pressure zones.

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5.2 LITERATURE SURVEY (contd)
2. F. Bechwati et al., “Low Frequency Sound Propagation in Activated Carbon,
“The Journal of Acoustical Society of America, vol.132, no.1, pp.239-248, 2012..

• Activated carbon can adsorb and desorb gas molecules onto and off its surface.

• Research has examined whether this sorption affects low frequency sound waves,
with pressures typical of audible sound, interacting with granular activated carbon.

• The number of moles of air that must be injected into a constant volume to achieve
a given pressure change is larger than would be required if the material was not
present and the chamber was just filled with air.

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5.3 LITERATURE SURVEY (Contd)
3. Shaik Salauddin et al., ”Sound Fire Extinguishers in Space Stations,” International
Conference on Electrical, Electronics, and Optimization Techniques (ICEEOT), vol. 1, no.
4, pp. 3454-3457, 2016.

• Explains the properties and characteristics of sound at earth and space.

• Sound is basically mechanical waves of definite pressure and velocity.
• The motion of the sound takes place by this pressure waves displacing
one particle to others.
• Sound basically travels in two forms: longitudinal waves and
transverse waves.
• Selection of frequency is also explained which is based on the type of
fire as there are chances of certain sound frequencies enhancing the
fire source rather than extinguishing it.

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5.4 LITERATURE SURVEY (Contd)

4. DARPA, ”Instant Flame Suppression”, Defense Advanced Research

Project Agency(DARPA), Cambridge, 2008.
• Explained on the interaction of the flame profile and the
sound waves.
• Shown the effect of pressure and velocity changes of the
waves which causes the suppression of the flame.
• From the experiment carried out, it is told that a particular
frequency cannot be alone used for extinguishing the flame.
• The frequency depends on the type of the flame and also the
surrounding environment.

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5.5 LITERATURE SURVEY (Contd.)
5. R.W. Wood and Alfred L. Loomis, ”The Physical and Biological Effects of High
Frequency Sound Waves of Great Intensity,” Philosophical Magazine and Journal of
Science, vol. 4, no. 22, pp. 417-436, 2007.

• In this paper Prof. R.W. Wood et al., explains that the sound appears to be a topic
distinct from motion and heat.

• Sound is an ordered motion of the molecules of the medium through which it

propagates.

• Sound moving through a flame will produce different shapes at different amplitudes
and frequencies.

• The flame behaviour was examined at different frequencies and was found that at
certain frequencies the flame will flicker more intensely, because these frequencies
will resonate within the tube.
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6.0 METHODOLOGY

Fig. Methodology Flowchart

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6.0 METHODOLOGY (CONTD.)

• The pressure fluctuations due to the sound wave propagation will

cause a significant change in temperature profile near the flame.

• High pressure to low pressure and vice versa will cause immediate
change on the temperature.

• The combined actions of fluctuating temperature, pressure and air-fuel

ratio to the flame will affect the flame behaviour under the regulated
sound wave environment.

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6.0 METHODOLOGY ( CONTD )

• Pressure changes have an influence on the burning rate of a material

and cause combustion instabilities, which could eventually lead to
flame extinction.

• The combination of varying high and low pressure coupled with high
flow air velocity, causes disturbances in air-fuel ratio at the flame
boundary leading to thinning of flame boundary and to flame
extinction.

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7.0 PLAN OF ACTION

MONTH VARIABLES

• October(2nd week) • Identification of the problem

• November • Literature Survey

• December • Literature Survey

• Conduction of experiment

• Modelling and fabrication of the prototype

• (January – February)
• Testing

• March • Drafting of Report

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CONVERGED COLLIMATOR

Figure 7:- Converged collimator with speaker

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CYLINDRICAL COLLIMATOR

Figure 8:- Cylindrical collimator with speaker

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9.1 TESTING WITH CYLINDRICAL COLLIMATOR

Sl.no Frequency Time Time Average
(Hz) (𝒕𝟏 ) (𝒕𝟐 ) time(t)

1 40 9.87 10.10 9.98

2 50 8.76 8.94 8.85

3 60 6.74 6.42 6.58

4 70 5.63 6.23 5.93

5 80 4.11 3.97 4.04

6 90 2.98 3.11 3.04

• Test is conducted with cylindrical collimator where the

frequency is varied and time for extinguishing the fire is
obtained.

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9.2 TESTING WITH CYLINDRICAL COLLIMATOR

Sl. No Distance(m) Effect on Fire source

1 3.0 No effect

2 2.0 No effect

3 1.2 Flame flickers

4 1.0 Flame flickers

5 0.8 Flame flickers vigorously

6 0.6 Flame almost extinguishes

7 0.4 Flame extinguishes

• Test is conducted with cylindrical collimator where the distance

between the collimator and flame source is varied, and effect of fire
source is observed.

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9.3 TESTING WITH CYLINDRICAL COLLIMATOR

Sl. No Length Time (𝒕𝟏 ) in Time (𝒕𝟐 ) in Time(t)
cm sec sec sec

1 40 1.90 2.0 1.95

2 45 1.70 1.90 1.80

3 50 2.02 2.05 2.03

4 55 2.10 2.30 2.2

5 60 2.35 2.05 2.2

6 65 2.75 2.80 2.77

• Testing is conducted by varying the length of the cylindrical

collimator and time for extinguishing the fire is noted.

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9.4 TESTING WITH CONVERGED COLLIMATOR

Sl. No Distance (m) Effect on fire

1 3.0 No effect on flame
2 2.5 No effect on flame
3 2.0 No effect on flame
4 1.5 Flame starts flickering
5 1.0 Flame flickers
6 0.8 Flame flickering vigorously
7 0.6 Flame flickering vigorously
8 0.4 Flame flickering vigorously
9 0.3 Flame extinguishes

• Testing is conducted with converged collimator where the

distance between the flame source and collimator is varied,
and effect of flame is noted.

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9.5 TESTING WITH CONVERGED COLLIMATOR

Sl.no Frequency Time Time Average

(Hz) (𝒕𝟏 ) (𝒕𝟐 ) time(t)

1 40 9.67 9.87 9.98

2 50 8.65 8.91 8.85

3 60 6.02 6.44 6.58

4 70 4.91 5.93 5.93

5 80 3.82 3.63 4.04

6 90 2.70 2.90 3.04

• Testing is conducted with converged collimator where

the frequency is varied and time taken for extinguishing
the fire is noted.

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10.1 RESULTS

• Frequency vs Time graph of cylindrical collimator is plotted.

• 90Hz is the optimum frequency found.

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10.2 RESULTS

• Length vs Time graph is plotted for the test with cylindrical

collimator.
• 45cm is the optimum length of the cylindrical collimator used.

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10.3 RESULTS

• Frequency vs Time graph is plotted for the test with converged

collimator.
• 80Hz is the optimum frequency found.

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STAGES OF EXTINGUISHING OF FIRE

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STAGES OF EXTINGUISHING OF FIRE

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STAGES OF EXTINGUISHING OF FIRE

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ADVANTAGES
 No residue when compared with Chemical Extinguishers.
 Lighter material weight
 Less harm to environment
 Nontoxic
 Long shelf life
 Refilling is not required

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11.0 CONCLUSIONS
• As per the objective, the frequency range was found out. The
necessary frequency range was 91Hz.
• 2D and 3D models of the cylindrical and converged collimator was
developed using SOLID EDGE v20.
• The cylindrical and converged collimator was fabricated as per the
dimensions obtained from the journal papers.
• The proposed system was fabricated using the above fabricated
collimator and a working model of the system was achieved.
• Experiments were conducted to test the efficiency of both the type of
sound focusing components and parameters such as frequency, time,
distance, were varied and the corresponding values of each was found
out.

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12.0 SCOPE FOR FUTURE WORK

• Activated carbon has the property to adsorb and desorb gas molecules
from its surface, incorporating this according to the required geometry
can increase the efficiency of the Acoustic fire extinguisher.
• FSS [Frequency Selective Surface] meta-materials have the ability to
change the incident wave frequencies and have good directional
property.
• The current techniques used in fire extinguishing are not environment
friendly with further developments the acoustic fire extinguisher can
perform as an eco-friendly fire extinguisher.
• More analysis and testing can be done to determine the further
efficiency of the system.

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13.0 REFERENCES
1) Prof .Colin.H.Hansen et al., “Fundamentals of Acoustics” , in “Occupational Exposure to Noise:
Evaluation, Prevention and Control”, Dortmund, Germany: World Health Organization , 2001, Ch. 1,
Sec. 1.1 ,pp. 23-39.

2) F. Bechwati et al., “Low frequency sound propagation in activated carbon”, The Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America ,vol. 132, issue 1, p. 239-248, July 2012.

3) Shaik Salauddin et al., ”Sound Fire Extinguishers in Space Stations,” International Conference on
Electrical, Electronics, and Optimization Techniques (ICEEOT), vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 3454-3457, 2016.

4) DARPA, ”Instant Flame Suppression”, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency(DARPA),

Cambridge, 2008.

5) R.W. Wood and Alfred L. Loomis, ”The Physical and Biological Effects of High Frequency Sound
Waves of Great Intensity,” Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, vol. 4, no. 22, pp. 417-436,
2007.

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