Douglas A Carpenter

US Patent:

8413530, Apr 9, 2013

Filed:

May 11, 2010

Appl. No.:

12/778060

Inventors:

Richard J. Roby - Columbia MD, US
Douglas J. Carpenter - Pasadena MD, US

Assignee:

Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc. - Columbia MD

International Classification:

G01M 99/00
G08B 9/00

US Classification:

738664, 73861, 738659

Abstract:

A method and apparatus to simulate a flow of products from a real fire without reproducing a thermal environment associated with the real fire includes the release of a gas or a mixture of gases with an appropriate density less than air to simulate smoke movement from real fire sources. The buoyant inert gas may be helium. In some embodiments, the buoyant gas is combined with artificial smoke, such as a tracer gas or an inert dye (e. g. , a particulate) to provide a visual representation of the location and flow characteristics of the surrogate smoke that is released from a release apparatus. In another embodiment, optical techniques that show differences in gas density are used to visualize the movement of the buoyant gas. The release apparatus includes a control system that follows a prescribed time-dependent flow rate to simulate different fire source configurations and growth rates.