Eureka! Institutional Repository

Up until today, the design of smoke detectors was done in an empirical way, which did not lead to the desired results. Consequently, the smoke detector was unable to perform at its best. A poor design of smoke detector geometry usually involves slits around the perimeter in an irregular fashion, leading to unwanted flows and false alarms with many errors. Therefore, it is vital to produce a smoke detector of high quality, minimizing the errors that can result from a poor design. Knowing how to optimize this design step will speed up the product manufacturing process and save designers’ valuable time. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of different smoke mixture flows inside the detector by modifying the detector itself using the Design of Experiments method. In particular, the design method to achieve the most suitable cross-section of the smoke detector is investigated based on the different parameters. The design process of the experiments is implemented in such a way that appropriate data are collected and analysed through statistical methods in order to draw valid and objective conclusions. While ooptimising the design we observe theoretically and practically that our conclusions are verified. Printing the optimal smoke detector design allows us to experiment with real flows and utilize the Design of Experiments method.