University of Maryland uses Malvern Spraytec in fire suppressant studies

Studies of fire suppression sprays in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland, directed by Professor André Marshall, have been significantly enhanced by the acquisition of a Malvern Spraytec system.

The Spraytec allows direct measurement of spray droplet size, producing data that facilitate model development and validation.

Spraytec is a laser diffraction-based system developed specifically to characterize the messy, wide angle, concentrated sprays typical of this application. Professor Marshall’s group is using the data it provides to support the development of atomization models for fire suppression devices and to investigate the droplet size of surfactant enhanced water mists.

“A key area of research for us at the moment is the development of atomization models that allow prediction of droplet size and suppressant spray behavior from injector geometry and pressure,” explains Professor Marshall. “The Spraytec has enabled us to easily access valuable droplet size data for model development and validation purposes, and has proven itself straightforward to use. And it is reliable even though we have subjected it to far from ideal measurement conditions!”

The Spraytec’s optical system has an extremely large working range, which, in combination with the flexible bench design, makes possible the measurement of wide sprays. Importantly, the optical windows of the analyzer are kept clean using a continuous air purge while a patented algorithm addresses the issue of multiple scattering – a cause of inaccuracies for concentrated sprays measured using conventional analyzers. This enables the use of the system for a wide range of spray applications.