This isn't an entirely new concept - explosives have been used for over 100 years to put out oil well fires[1] for example, due to the difficulty of cutting off the fuel source.<p>[1]: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well_fire#Extinguishing_the_fires" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well_fire#Extinguishing_the...</a>
I've been thinking about this exact concept since the Mythbusters tested it. I'm glad someone has gone out and prove it has legs/pushed it forward.<p>While I could see the benefit for the scenarios they listed (aircraft, space shuttles, etc) I actually think the real killer use could be for forest fires.<p>With forest fires you're constantly running out of water, and the only way to ship it the location it is needed is often multi-hour drives (which consume a lot of fuel).<p>If this concept worked then instead of moving water from A to B you only now have to worry about an energy source (e.g. diesel). So you could drive up a truck with generator on it and diesel in a fireproof tank, and then spend hours extinguishing fires.<p>Now, yes, fires can reignite. However that is also true with water, water evaporates extremely quickly from an area that was on fire both because that area is extremely dry, because of the ambient heat, and also because it likely started out hot to begin with.<p>PS - Fire retardants help keeping fires out, but they're bad for the environment and are also hard to keep supplied in remote areas, and when you're refilling directly from a river.
It sounds like they're basically blowing the fire out, which is why it only works on really easy-to-blow-out flames.<p>Good luck blowing out a forest fire!
“One of the problems with sound waves is that they do not cool the fuel,” Isman said. “So even if you get the fire out, it will rekindle if you don’t either take away the fuel or cool it.”<p>Not to dumb it down, but I can see this being an effective tool for preventing grease flare-ups in my grill. It won't cool the coals, but it will kill the flames.
How does it work?<p>I mean is it a new discovery that some frequencies create resonance and stop the convection and prevent oxygenation of the flame?<p>Or is it just using sheer power to "blow" the flame off? but instead of a blower, it just uses very high powered speaker in low frequency?