Patent ID: 7529472

Claim:
A method of generating simulated smoke for testing of fire detection systems, the method comprising: providing liquid oil in a liquid oil tank; forcing the liquid oil in the liquid oil tank to flow from through an oil passage; mixing the liquid oil in the oil passage with a first gas; flowing the mixed liquid oil and first gas from the oil passage through a heater; vaporizing the mixed liquid oil and first gas using the heater into a vaporized mixture; forcing the vaporized mixture to be expelled into a chimney; cooling and condensing the expelled vaporized mixture in the chimney to form a thermal aersol of oil droplets; moving the thermal aersol out of the chimney using a second heated gas to generate a consistent type of simulated smoke; and using closed loop control to maintain at least one property, affecting one or more characteristics of at least one of the liquid oil, the first gas, the vaporized mixture, the thermal aersol, and the second heated gas, at a desired level.