Water Mist as a fire protection system is a relatively new extinguishing method  in buildings onshore. SINTEF NBL has recently started to investigate which parameters have the largest impact when water mist is used. Modern  housing contains a lot of combustible materials, and in case of fire, the time limit is short before flash-over. Tests done by SINTEF NBL show that simple water mist installations are able to prevent fires to develope and in some cases even extinguish the fire.

The size of the droplets, ventilation conditions and release time of the system are very important parameters in the tests. The tests are carried out with relatively small rooms surrounding a corridor because we want to cover buildings like hotels, offices and barracks.

Experience show that it is possible to fight a fire using less water than traditional sprinkler systems.  This will reduce the quantity of water, the costs and the extent of the damage to the building.

The results from these tests will hopefully give an answer as to dimensioning a water mist system. However documentation of bigger rooms with larger headroom will require further investigation. 

The project was initiated by a company named TekØk  and financed by  Statsbygg - The Directorate of Public Construction and Property,  Forsvarsbygg - The Norwegian Defence Estates Agency and NTNU - The Norwegian University of Science and Technology.  The Project will be completed during 2007.