Smoke Detector Response to Nuisance Aerosols

Published

March 16, 1999

Author(s)

Thomas G. Cleary, William L. Grosshandler, Artur A. Chernovsky

Abstract

The worth of a fire detector is determined as much by its ability not to respond to stimuli that are generated from non-threatening sources as to respond in a timely manner to an actual fire. Photo-electric and ionization smoke detectors react to a greater or lesser degree to all particles that enter the sensing chamber, and, by themselves, the detectors can not distinguish smoke from a nuisance aerosol. The fire-emulator/detector-evaluator (FE/DE) is used to produce smoke and nuisance aerosols representative of what could be present immediately adjacent to an installed detector, and provides a test bed to determine the response of spot-type detectors to physical products (temperature, gases, and smoke) formed in simulated fires, as well as the response to stimuli not associated with a fire threat. The analog output of a multi-sensor detector is measured as a function of aerosol type (peanut oil and clay dust), concentration, and air flow, and is compared to the response of the detector to a flaming fire, and to the extinction of laser light in the FE/DE test section at optical densities up to 0.12 m-1.

Proceedings Title

14th International Conference on Automatic Fire Detection "AUBE '99", 11th Proceedings

Conference Dates

March 16-18, 1999

Conference Location

Duisburg,

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

fire detection, fire detection systems, smoke detectors, test methods, aerosols, data analysis

Citation

Cleary, T. , Grosshandler, W. and Chernovsky, A. (1999), Smoke Detector Response to Nuisance Aerosols, 14th International Conference on Automatic Fire Detection "AUBE '99", 11th Proceedings, Duisburg, , [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=910097 (Accessed October 10, 2025)