Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Patuxent River was recently selected as the Navy winner of the Department of Defense's TechMatch 2010 Hot Technologies contest. NAWCAD won for its fine mist nozzle technology, a novel water delivery method that supplies a minimal amount of water for cooling/quenching fire temperature and smoothing/suffocating fire with the steam that is generated. The technology dramatically improves the ability to extinguish fires in small contained areas. By winning the TechMatch Hot Technologies contest for the Navy, NAWCAD will receive a marketing video created by Media Marketing Consultants, sponsored by the Department of Defense, the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Office of Technology Transition.
The fine mist nozzle uses air to push water through a restricted convergent region followed by an expanded divergent region of the nozzle. The rapid expansion of the water and gases in the divergent region causes the water to break up and be atomized into droplets the size of 10 to 100 micrometers. The typical firefighting technique is to flood a fire with more water than would be required to extinguish it, producing up to 150 gallons of water per minute (or over 1,200 pounds per minute). In contrast, the fine mist nozzle delivers less than 2 gallons of water per minute (or less than 17 pounds per minute), with the same fire-extinguishing abilities as a traditional nozzle, resulting in less water/structural damage to the structure being extinguished. With the ban of halon for extinguishing fires on aircraft, the fine mist nozzle is a compact, lightweight, nontoxic, simple and effective solution for use on aircraft and ships since it uses water as its main element.
The fine mist nozzle can be fabricated by standard machining methods using a variety of metals or composite/plastic materials, allowing the nozzles to be placed on the ends of wands, booms and rams that can be poked and inserted into aircraft, basements, attics, wall cavities, etc., to remotely fog the enclosed spaces for extinguishing fires/quenching hot embers without endangering a firefighter. Because there is minimal back momentum, the smaller size nozzle allows for one-hand operation, unlike conventional nozzles that require twohand operation and often more than one firefighter to maintain control of the nozzle and hose.
Although fire protection applications were the main focus for the technology, other commercial interests include acoustic noise reduction, painting applications, fuel atomization, nanoparticle separation, cleaning applications, and snowmaking. Studies of the technology have led to four issued patents and two pending patents.
In addition to the 2010 Hot Technologies contest award, the nozzle technology and patent portfolio has been selected twice for the World's Best Technologies Showcase, has been commercially licensed nonexclusively, has received the Federal Laboratory Consortium's achievement award, and was presented at the Fire-Rescue International 2009 conference in Dallas. NAWCAD also has a limited-purpose Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with a company to further evaluate the nozzle for its application, and is in negotiations for another nonexclusive license agreement.
For more information on the fine mist nozzle, contact NAWCAD at 301-342-5586.
