How does waterfog work?
Fire fighting with water fog systems is based on the small droplet size. The small droplets are turned in to water steam early in the fire course. When the water fog is turned into steam by the heat the amount of oxygen in the air is strongly reduced as a result of the increasing amount of water in the air. Furthermore the water fog will create an overpressure in the space which will prevent fresh air from coming in. In this way the fire is suffocated in the same time as the water fog will give an extremely effective cooling of both the area of the fire and surrounding objects. The smaller the droplets are, the earlier in the course the water fog is turned into steam and the quicker the fire can be put out.
Advantages with water fog and high pressure systems
• Much lower amount of water needed to extinguish the fire
• Much higher cooling effect
• More effective shielding of radiant heat
• Much smaller pipe dimension
• Much lower total system weight
• Reduced size of drain and scupper system