DEVELOPMENT OF AN INNOVATIVE FINE WATER MIST DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR AIRCRAFT FIRE PROTECTION AND EXPLOSION SUPPRESSION

The development of fire protection and explosion suppression systems is of critical importance to the safety of both military and civilian aircraft. The phase out of Halon-based fire suppression systems has created a critical need for a compact, light weight, and effective alternative for use in aircraft and other applications. The Navy has identified fine water mists and high speed delivery systems as critical to the effectiveness of a replacement of explosion and fire suppression systems for use in military aircraft. The design of a nozzle system capable of delivering sufficient water in the form of appropriate sized droplets will require consideration of complex interactions between the fluid and gas phases. The two-phase fluid dynamics adds a degree of complexity to the design of the high speed delivery system. The proposed research will accomplish this by modification of existing CFD tools to better model and optimize the delivery system. Experiments utilizing existing facilities and sophisticated laser-based particle sizing instruments will both validate this customized code and provide additional insight into the physical processes which must be considered in the design process.