Conclusion

There are two families of methods for assessing smoke opacity. Direct methods are based on the measurement of the smoke extinction coefficient or a similar optical parameter. Indirect methods relate the mass of fuel under consideration to soot production by means of a factor characteristic of the fuel.

Once the opacity has been determined, it's time to choose the right model to correlate it with the loss of visibility. Visibility assessment is a key parameter in fire safety. However, by analogy with toxicity, it is difficult to assess variability within populations, and existing correlations are based on significant assumptions and present strong uncertainties. This is why the performance criterion chosen must be justified and all assumptions known.

Smoke opacity is used descriptively in many contexts, in particular to limit the smoke-producing...