IWMA Water Mist Conference 2019 Review: The 19th International Water Mist Conference in 2019 took place in Berlin, Germany, on 23rd and 24th October. In all, 110 delegates from 21 countries attended the event. Eighteen speakers from 12 countries gave 17 presentations. Alongside the conference, which was – as always – organized by the International Water Mist Association (IWMA), ran an exhibition where water mist manufacturers had the opportunity to showcase their products.
The first day of the conference mainly dealt with applications: water mist for laboratories, the food industry, high-rise buildings, historic sites. Highlights of the day were an update on the development of the European Water Mist Standard prEN14972 and the panel discussion on “Grenfell, Notre Dame – how can water mist help prevent the loss of lives, jobs and property?” Here, the unanimous view was that water mist systems can indeed provide options for a safer living and working environment. However, there are still tasks to be tackled to further establish and promote the technology and to make it wider known. One issue here is to in future work closer with the insurance industry.
The second day of the conference is usually mainly dedicated to science and research. Some of the speakers took a look into the not so far future. One of the subjects was “new energy carriers and related new fire risks for underground facilities” (report about the progress of the SUVEREN Research Project which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), the other was “opportunities for water mist firefighting in a low carbon future”.
The second day of the conference is also the day when IWMA President Are Brandt and the chairman of the IWMA Scientific Council hand over the IWMA Young Talent Award. This year, IWMA had been looking for the author of the best Ph. D. thesis which turned out to be Topi Sikanen whose thesis was entitled: “Simulation of transport, evaporation and combustion of Liquids in large-scale fire incidents”.
Important for the water mist community was also the update of the VdS guideline 3188 to which IWMA has been invited to contribute in future.
At the end of the day two, IWMA President Are Brandt closed the conference and announced the place and date of the 20th International Water Mist Conference: Warsaw, Poland, 7th and 8th October 2020. The Call for Papers will be published on 15th January 2020.
For more information visit iwma.net/home/
