Former NASA Engineers Create Ingenious Way To Save Homes From Wildfires Using Noise (nypost.com) 16
"Scientists have created a miraculous new way to stop fires from spreading through neighborhoods using nothing but sound," reports the New York Post:
Former NASA engineers with California-based Sonic Fire Tech found that using sound waves can snuff out blazes and potentially be used to stop another Pacific Palisades inferno... The technology works by targeting oxygen molecules using low-frequency sound waves that vibrate them, stopping the fire from growing. "Sound waves vibrate the oxygen faster than the fuel can use it, and break the chemical reaction of the flame," Remington Hotchkis, Chief Commercialization Officer at Sonic Fire Tech told The Post.
The San Bernardino County Fire Department recently tested out the equipment using a backpack version and the results were incredible. Video shows firefighters fighting small blazes on a shrub and a stove top fire with the technology putting it out... In the home application, the system would be alerted/activated if there was a fire, sending the sound waves through a home duct system, essentially snuffing out the blaze. The sound waves can reach as far as 30ft from a home, the report noted. The sound is also harmless to pets and humans.
The article includes this quote that an executive at the company gave local news station KMPH. "Our former NASA engineers are rocket scientists, and they say it seems like magic, but it's just physics."
The San Bernardino County Fire Department recently tested out the equipment using a backpack version and the results were incredible. Video shows firefighters fighting small blazes on a shrub and a stove top fire with the technology putting it out... In the home application, the system would be alerted/activated if there was a fire, sending the sound waves through a home duct system, essentially snuffing out the blaze. The sound waves can reach as far as 30ft from a home, the report noted. The sound is also harmless to pets and humans.
The article includes this quote that an executive at the company gave local news station KMPH. "Our former NASA engineers are rocket scientists, and they say it seems like magic, but it's just physics."
Re: (Score:2)
... more proof that Kubrick and Aldrin faked the moon landing.
Using it to fight fires in space might become a good application of this. I remember experimenting with 100 watts of 100Hz at about meter made it difficult to breath, however that was easy to hear.
"The sound is also harmless to pets and humans" (Score:2)
good luck convincing all the anti wind farm people about that and they won't be the only ones won't believe it
That is what I like about American units (Score:1)
a) they sound so impressive, after all they are not called American units but Imperial units. That is cool!
b) they are impressive in a gigantic way: even the tiny things sound so big!
The sound waves can reach as far as 30ft from a home, the report noted.
So if a hapless bird flies trough flaming tree, the sonic wave will blow of the flames from his feathers, before it crash lands on your balcony?
Convert it into a useable unit, for example yards. Then you realize: this is ten steps, or five passes. If the fla
Re: That is what I like about American units (Score:2)
Why would a bird fly thru a burning tree?
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That's no bird! It's Superman!
Build fireproof structures, this is not difficult. (Score:2)
It's quite practical to build completely fireproof homes. Some Californians do, which proves the rest can do that too. None of these things are difficult. Concrete domes shrug off embers. So do eaveless steel buildings which make ideal garages easy to erect with a very small crew (which I did). Both are easy to make quake-resistant.
Of course it's CA and art is more important than public safety so they'll continue to burn and I'll continue to scorn their silly choices.
There is nothing new to invent, only cho
Re: (Score:2)
Even with a layer of stucco a wooden inner wall won't get to a temperature to spontaneously combust if you don't do something silly like planting eucalyptus next to it.
Re: Build fireproof structures, this is not diffic (Score:2)
Concrete domes shrug off embers. So do eaveless steel buildings
So all they need to do is simply replace every structure in California with concrete domes or eavesless steel buildings?
Wow, that shouldn't be a problem - thanks for such a simple answer! /smh
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It's quite practical to build completely fireproof homes. Some Californians do, which proves the rest can do that too.
Californian's are only at the beginning of their experience with eucalyptus trees, which are native to Australia. You're quite right, it's possible to build bushfire ( I think the US calls them wildfires) resistant homes. In Australia there are specific assessment and building requirements for a home likely to be affected by fire called BAL [csiro.au] and I think you also have to get a planning permit [vic.gov.au]
I had the experience of my neighborhood having a bushfire go through it. I realized how few people know just how t
Maybe. Or maybe not. (Score:3)
Trust the New York Post to breathlessly repeat a company's advertizing claims about the amazing things their technology can do. Here [arstechnica.com] is a different article that treats it more skeptically:
But two experts who spoke with Ars raised serious questions about the potential for this technology to supplant traditional sprinklers in a home. They are even more skeptical as to whether the technique can be effective in an uncontrolled wildfire situation, where flames can grow very quickly.
[...]
Wittasek said that if Sonic Fire Tech is going to claim that its product is as good as or better than the NFPA 13D standard, it should be able to provide a whole range of specifics, such as "who validated it, what test protocols were used, what fire scenarios were included, and how success was defined."
"I would want to see full-scale testing that includes typical residential fires like furniture and mattress fires, cooking fires, electrical fires, and attic or exterior ember exposures," he added. "It should also cover different conditions like open and closed doors, varying ceiling heights, crosswinds, obstructed fuel packages, and whether the fire comes back after the system shuts off."
Similarly, Michael Gollner, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and an expert in fire dynamics, told Ars there's simply not enough information yet to show that this technology works better than sprinklers.
He pointed to a 2018 academic paper, which found that "acoustics alone are insufficient to control flames beyond the incipient stage."
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you, came here for exactly this!
It's immediately striking there are no independent validations of any of these self-interested claims by a commercial developer. It looks like an oversize bacckpack leaf blower. Nothing that seems like it could effectively cover a large area or a home interior. What, it's going to BLOW this through our HVAC ducts??
I'd also demand some solid safety certification of those claims of "harmless to pets and humans" . . .
And finally, yeah - the New York Post?? Sheesh!
Will it scale up? (Score:2)
The San Bernardino County Fire Department recently tested out the equipment using a backpack version and the results were incredible. Video shows firefighters fighting small blazes on a shrub and a stove top fire with the technology putting it out...
OK, so it can put out a burning bush or stove-top fire, but how, exactly will this be deployed in the case of another Palisades fire? As a reminder, in the Palisades fire it was abandoned before it was fully out (no one stayed behind to make sure the wildfire was out), then, hours later, acres were burning - a couple guys with fancy backpack sound machines aren't going to stop it, any more than a couple guys with garden hoses. (PS, water availability was also a factor in Palisades, no matter what 2028 Presi