A Numerical Study Onfire Suppression of Water Mist in Microgravity

Abstract

Water mist technology has been developed and regarded as a promising substitute fire-extinguishing agent in spacecraft. In this paper, a numerical simulation method is introduced to investigate the effect of water mist size, velocity and flow rateon the fire suppressionefficiencyin microgravity. The fire extinguishing efficiency is better for the finer water mist in microgravity due to better heat transfer and more rapid vaporization. The evaporation cooling is the dominant mechanism of fire suppression in microgravity.As for the water mist velocity, the performance of fire suppression is affected slightly in microgravity. The results on the effect of water flow rate show that the flow rate should be higher than a critical value to suppress the fire effectively.