Military Scientists Unveil Sound-Powered Fire Extinguisher

Hevva

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Aug 2, 2011
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Military Scientists Unveil Sound-Powered Fire Extinguisher


DARPA has figured out how to suppress flame using nothing but sound.

Back in 2008, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) decided that somebody should really work on improving a hundred year-old theory regarding how we might control fire using sound. Now, almost four years on, the agency has just about cracked it - its scientists have managed to extinguish a flame using nothing but sound.

In the attached video, we see a speaker-bound flame flicker, reignite, and then die under the pressure of some relatively quiet noises. While the technology still has a long way to go - with the eventual aim being fire suppression devices for use in places like aeroplane cockpits and ship holds - the achievement remains noteworthy.

How does this work, then? There are two main techniques at work in the video. The first is that the sound buzzing around the flame is increasing the air's velocity by just enough to thin the flame boundary (the area of the flame in which combustion occurs). At the same time, the sound waves are disturbing the flame's fuel source to the point where its speed of vaporization is increasing. This cools and spreads the fuel, disturbing the flame at the same time as shortening its brief life. The sound doesn't need to be loud to achieve this (hence why your lighter stays alive at concerts); rather, it just needs to be tailored.

"We have shown that the physics of combustion still has surprises in store for us," said DARPA manager Matthew Goodman. "Perhaps these results will spur new ideas and applications in combustion research."

Happily, this isn't the end of the road for DARPA's investigations into sound-powered fire suppression. Bolstered by its success, the agency now hopes to realize its goal of inventing a practical and worthwhile application for this kind of technology. In its current form, the technology might be at its most useful in environments where fuel-based fires are particularly problematic. But who knows where this could go? Should we take bets on how long will it take someone to mod it so that it yells "Fus Roh Dah!" when you switch it on? Here's hoping this makes it that far.


Source: Wired [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/13/sound-fire-extinguisher]










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theshadavid

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Aug 10, 2009
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I'm off to basic training for the U.S. Navy in September as part of the Nuclear Community. This is HUGE if they can get this into submarines.
 

chadachada123

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Jan 17, 2011
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All this, and we still can't make a sound-machine that makes orgasms?

DARPA...I am disappointed.
 

joeman098

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Jun 18, 2007
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I LOVE DARPA SO MUCH! I wish i could sit around and just fuck with things like hey i bet i could invent a tube of chapstick to shut a car down from 10000miles away!
 

MailOrderClone

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Nov 30, 2009
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This is such a neat thing. Get it working right, and these extinguishers could be in every household a few years down the line. Little handheld extinguishing noisemakers on keychains or flashlight-sized ones in cabinets. Sure it's a huge machine right now, but one thing that has been proven a hundred times over in recent years is the simple fact that technology always gets smaller and more convenient.
 

dalek sec

Leader of the Cult of Skaro
Jul 20, 2008
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chadachada123 said:
All this, and we still can't make a sound-machine that makes orgasms?

DARPA...I am disappointed.
You gotta give it time to trickle down into the public sector first. You know how it is, military first and then we get to screw around with it.

Does this mean we could be seeing Noise Marines at something in the near future? :D

OT: I thought this was insane but then I read that DARPA was behind it so it doesn't seem quite so crazy now, this is what they get paid to do.
 

Roboto

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Nov 18, 2009
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I was thinking how hilarious it would be with that video sound replaced with vuvuezela sound screaming at the fire into submission. I call first dibs.
 

Tallim

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Mar 16, 2010
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Broken Blade said:
Didn't we see this on Mythbusters a few years back?
Yes and No, the Mythbusters thing was whether the human voice could extinguish a flame.
 

Petromir

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Apr 10, 2010
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theshadavid said:
I'm off to basic training for the U.S. Navy in September as part of the Nuclear Community. This is HUGE if they can get this into submarines.
Big for all ships, the water in firefighting even on surface ships is a massive issue. Now if only they can find a way to boundary cool with sound......
 

Clearing the Eye

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Jun 6, 2012
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As someone has said, the Mythbusters used sound (the human voice over an amplifier) to extinguish a fire years ago.