Demonstration of Millimeter Wave Radar Sensing in Fire and Smoky Environments

In emergency situations involving fire and smoke, optical and infrared sensors offer limited information due to visual obstructions and intense heat, whereas radar sensing seems to be a promising solution. Radar sensing's ability to penetrate smoke and fire is well established at microwave frequencies of sub-24 GHz. However, spatial resolution is limited at these frequencies, prompting the exploration of higher-frequency regions. Therefore, this study investigates radar sensing within the millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, specifically in the 75-110 GHz frequency range. A vector network analyzer (VNA) based testbed in a monostatic configuration is implemented, and test cases involving the standardized generation of various smoke and flame types are examined. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technique is employed to generate a 2D map of the investigated environment. The map is explored for estimation of attenuation in signal power due to the fire. Additionally, the imaging results are analyzed for artifacts resulting from phase errors caused by flame and smoke.