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Oxygen Sensor in Fires

Award Information
Agency: Department of Commerce
Branch: N/A
Contract: SB1341-02-W-1138
Agency Tracking Number: 7.16.02
Amount: $75,000.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: N/A
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: N/A
Award Year: 2002
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): N/A
Award End Date (Contract End Date): N/A
Small Business Information
1570 Pacheco Street Suite E-11
Santa Fe, NM 87505
United States
DUNS: 153579891
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Shin-Juh Chen
 Senior Research Scientist
 (505) 984-1322
 sjchen@swsciences.com
Business Contact
 Alan Stanton
Title: President
Phone: () -
Email: astanton@swsciences.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

The ability to perform in-situ measurements of oxygen concentration in fire environments at a fast rate (better than 1 sec ) is not fulfilled by available sensor systems in the marketplace. Current systems involve extraction of gas samples with the required removal of water, particulate, and interfering chemical species, which can take several seconds to complete, prior to passing the samples to a gas analyzer. To capture the flow dynamics and chemical processes in fires, oxygen concentration measurements with better temporal and spatial resolution are needed. Better understanding of fire phenomena are crucial to fire safety and abatement of fires. Southwest Sciences proposes to develop a diode laser-based sensor for the in-situ measurement of oxygen concentrations in fires. Using a newly developed vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) as the light source for optical absorption sensing has several advantages over other techniques such as electrochemical cells, solid-state and dye-based sensors. Phase 1 will establish the requirements for a measurement probe that is hardened for fires and evaluate the performance of the sensor design in a fire.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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