A Study on Analyzing the Operation Time of the Sprinkler Head near the Beam with Fire Simulation

Abstract

In this study, the dangers surrounding vehicular fires were identified by means of statistical analysis of the national fire information system. The analysis was conducted on the operation time of the sprinkler fire extinguisher, which plays the most essential role during the initial fire extinguishing attempt, in case of a fire outbreak. A simulation was created using the application guidelines pertaining to a sprinkler head located close to a beam as provided in NFSC 103. The operation time of the sprinkler head was analyzed for the case of a parking lot fire where a fan was operated. Fire Dynamics Simulator was used as the simulation program. If the revised guidelines were applied to thesimulation, the sprinkler head located directly above the fire source was activated approximately 1 minin advance compared to the sprinkler head operating under current standards. Therefore, it was found that the revised guidelines were suitable and aided in early fire extinguishing attempts. In the case where a fan was operated along with the detector, during the outbreak of a fire, it was found that the operation of the sprinkler head located directly above the fire was delayed by two or more minutes compared to the simulated case where no fan was operated.