Progress in research and application of water mist fire suppression technology

Water mist technology in fire suppression has been a subject of many investigations over the last decade. This paper introduces the concept of water mist technology and discusses its extinguishment mechanisms in comparison with other fire suppression systems briefly. A survey is made on the recent applications of water mist for (1) Class B spray and pool fires in machinery spaces, gas turbine enclosures, combat vehicles, and flammable liquid storage rooms; (2) Class A fires in residential occupancies, marine accommoda-tions and public spaces, heritage buildings and libraries; (3) Class C fires in electronic equipment and computer rooms; and (4) the fires in aircraft onboard cabin and cargo com-partments. The paper proceeds to review some new applica-tions of water mist for the Class K fires in commercial cook rooms. Use of water mist for total-ship protection as well as the fire protection of heavy goods vehicle shuttle trains is also investigated. At last, the up-to-date development of corresponding test to evaluate the capabilities and limitaions of water mist is discussed.