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Polarized Light Scattering of Smoke Sources and Cooking Aerosols
Published
Author(s)
Thomas Cleary, Amy Mensch
Abstract
Light scattering data was gathered during experiments conducted in an ANSI/UL 217 test room constructed at NIST to assess the performance of currently available smoke alarms. Smoldering and flaming fires along with cooking experiments were conducted. The light scattering device was configured to measure polarized light scattering characteristics of the fire smokes and cooking aerosols. Results are presented for forward scattering, polarization and asymmetry ratios. The results show a high degree of discrimination between flaming soot and other smoldering and cooking aerosols by a 90o polarization ratio, and to a lesser degree of discrimination considering forward scattering and asymmetry ratios at the chosen angles.
Proceedings Title
16th International Conference on Automatic Fire Detection (AUBE 17) and Suppression, Detection
and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 17)
Cleary, T.
and Mensch, A.
(2017),
Polarized Light Scattering of Smoke Sources and Cooking Aerosols, 16th International Conference on Automatic Fire Detection (AUBE 17) and Suppression, Detection
and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 17), College Park, MD, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=923418
(Accessed October 7, 2025)