Comparative Study on Pressure Reduction of Sprinkler Piping Systems with an Orifice

Abstract

The recent increase in the number of high-rise buildings has led to increased pressure on sprinkler piping systems. This overpressure results in the supply of large quantities of water to a small number of open sprinkler heads due to the aging of buildings or malfunctioning of sprinkler heads. This induces significant water damage during incidents such as fires, resulting in long-term restoration needs of electrical and infrastructure facilities. Therefore, this study intends to mitigate this damage by introducing an orifice in sprinkler piping systems to reduce the water pressure at sprinkler head openings. Various types of data values were calculated by increasing the pressure and simultaneously varying the orifice specifications for each type of pipe. Currently, there are no test data of this kind, rendering the obtained data useful in the design and construction of orifices for pressure reduction in sprinkler piping systems.