Water Mist System for Shipboard Machinery Space Fires

Water mist has been determined to be a preferred alternative to Halon 1301 total flooding to extinguish fires occurring in ship machinery spaces and pump rooms, because it is toxicologically and physiologically inert. Water mist systems produce a drop size distribution with a range of drop sizes under 1000 μm, while the more conventional sprinkler systems produce much coarser particles. The smaller particle sizes have greater cooling efficiencies because evaporation and cooling are controlled by surface area, and the surface area of a large number of small droplets is greater than that of a small number of large droplets of the same total volume.