I was wondering: if it starves the fuel of oxygen, it stops the fuel from burning, even if it's still hot, yes? So if it could scale from frying-pan-level to house-level, at the very least, couldn't it be used to suppress the fire, the smoke production, and the further weakening of the structure, to allow a squad to search and rescue more safely? Then when you turn off the sound, maybe the material has cooled below the reignition point, but even if it hasn't, at that point you can fight the fire traditionally.
kileywm|11 years ago
My understanding is that it doesn't starve the fuel of oxygen, but rather starves it of activation energy. I'm fuzzy on the chemistry, but I remember it being like this:
fuel + O2 + activation energy -> CO2 + H2O + energy
The propagating sound waves move two of the input components of the reaction.
fuel: stationary
O2: moves, but is replaced by more O2
activation energy: moves and is missing from future reactions unless/until new activation energy is introduced.
Again, I took chem long ago, but I think that's what's going on.