Can sound put out fire in place of traditional fire extinguishers? A student-built prototype uses low-frequency waves to disturb airflow feeding flames.
A 17 year old student from Mexico has built a fire extinguisher that uses sound waves instead of water or chemicals. Ángela Karime Venegas Hernández has developed a prototype, called the Vortex Tech, which won gold at the International Science and Invention Fair in Indonesia.
While the conventional extinguishers use water, foam and chemicals, the technology uses sound-induced airflow that can disrupt combustion. The approach could offer an alternative for certain fire-extinguishing applications, although the prototype’s performance and suitability for practical fire-safety use would need further testing.
The device works by generating sound waves that create small, ring-shaped air vortices. These moving pockets of air disturbs, cutting the oxygen supply around the flame and eventually helping extinguish it. The principle offers a way to tackle small flames without directly spraying an extinguishing agent onto them.
While the first prototype struggled, the subsequent iterations and testing helped the team demonstrate the principle more effectively, according to reports by The Times of India.
The prototype includes a 12V battery, a frequency generator, an amplifier, a speaker, a horn and a modified bucket that serves as a sound cannon. The generator can produce a 30Hz tone, which the horn directs through an opening at the cannon’s outlet to create the air movement.
The prototype demonstrates how acoustic waves can be used to influence combustion, but further development would be needed to establish its effectiveness across different fire types, saving lives in real-world conditions.
