Smart chemical system for reliable fire detection

In fires, release of volatiles usually happens before generation of smoke/ airborne particles. Therefore, fire detection systems based on chemical gas sensors may respond faster than systems based on smoke detectors, which currently cope the market. However, fire detectors based exclusively on gas sensors are prone to false alarms. A key element in those systems is the associated signal and data processing since the detector should discriminate fires form other volatile sources (nuisances). Here, we present a gas sensor array composed of different sensing technologies and a customized data processing algorithm for early and robust fire detection. The gas sensor array was placed in a measurement chamber along with commercially available smoke-based detectors. To test the prototype different types of fire and nuisances were performed in the chamber. Results confirmed the benefits of the gas sensing approach since nuisances were rejected and, for some types of fire, gas-based system triggered the fire alarm faster than the smoke-based detectors. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.