Patent ID: 8662192
Filing Date: 2014-03-04
Classification: A62C

Abstract:
1. A fire and explosion suppression system, comprising: a source of pressurised liquid extinguishing agent, a source of a pressurised gas, mist producing means connected to receive a flow of the liquid extinguishing agent to produce a mist therefrom, mixing means for mixing the already-produced mist into a flow of the pressurised gas to produce a discharge in the form of a two-phase mixture comprising a suspension of droplets of the mist in the pressurised gas, a first path extending between the source of pressurised liquid extinguishing agent and the mist producing means for guiding the flow of the liquid extinguishing agent to the mist producing means at a mass flow rate thereof, a second path extending between the source of the pressurised gas and the mixing means for guiding the flow of the pressurised gas to the mixing means at a mass flow rate thereof, means for applying a pressure of the pressurised gas to the source of the liquid extinguishing agent, wherein the applied pressure of the pressurised gas continually reduces during the flow thereof through the second path, and means in the first path for automatically adjusting the mass flow rate of the liquid extinguishing agent as a function of the applied pressure of the pressurised gas so as to control the ratio of the mass flow rate of the liquid extinguishing agent in the first path to the mass flow rate of the pressurised gas in the second path towards such a value as to tend to produce a constant droplet size distribution in and for substantially the duration of the discharge, wherein the automatically adjusting comprises automatically reducing the mass flow rate of the liquid extinguishing agent as the applied pressure of the pressurized gas decays over the duration of the discharge.