Evaluation of a wireless sensor network with low cost and low energy consumption for fire detection and monitoring

Xavier Silvani (1) , Frederic Morandini (1) , Eric Innocenti (1) , Peres Sylvestre (2)

1 SPE - Sciences pour l'environnement
2 EDF-Corse - EDF Région Corse

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) may offer the opportunity to eliminate most of the extension cables and wires in digital systems, allowing operation far from any infrastructure. This opportunity coincides with a great increase in cost-effectiveness in an overall fire detection and monitoring system for vegetation or industrial configurations. Our purpose is to evaluate this opportunity. After presenting the three main technologies for wireless communications to non experts, we retained the ZigBee protocol for this study. We then investigated whether the use of a WSN with this protocol is valuable for measuring heat quantities during a fire spreading over vegetation fuel beds. Experiments are performed under both lab scale indoor and real outdoor conditions. The method consists of comparing temperatures and radiant heat fluxes gained simultaneously by the wireless technology and a wired data acquisition system (WDAS). Delays due to the wireless radio communications are identified and explained. We also observe information loss for measurements performed in the fire front. Finally, we highlight that fires can be detected satisfactorily by WSN equipment in indoor and outdoor conditions. However, we also show that the measurement accuracy of the wired systems cannot be achieved by the present wireless technology, and we do not recommend, at the present time, its use for fire monitoring and mitigation.

Domaines: Milieux fluides et réactifs

Xavier Silvani, Frederic Morandini, Eric Innocenti, Peres Sylvestre. Evaluation of a wireless sensor network with low cost and low energy consumption for fire detection and monitoring. Fire Technology, 2015, July 2015, Volume, Issue pp 971-993, 51 (4), pp.971-993. ⟨10.1007/s10694-014-0439-9⟩. ⟨hal-01074146⟩