Concentrated Watering Sprinkler System for Rack-type Warehouses

Abstract

In recent years, fires have frequently occurred in rack-type warehouses in which goods are vertically loaded. In the event of a fire, extinguishing operations using the present fire protection facilities are highly ineffective. The objective of this study was to satisfy the conditions required for fire extinguishing, rather than those for fire control. The conclusions obtained from the results of fire experiments were as follows: fire extinguishment should be performed by deluge-type sprinkler systems by zoning the regions into vertical sections; the K factor of the in-rack sprinkler heads should be 115 or more, and the spray angle should be limited to 130° or less; the sprinkler head should spray water within 4 min and 30 s from the time of fire ignition; the horizontal distance between the in-rack sprinkler heads should be smaller than 2.4 m; the vertical distance of in-rack sprinkler head should be smaller than 2.5 m of the rack height; and the in-rack sprinkler heads should be installed in the center of the flue space. Keywords: In-rack Sprinkler, Rack Type Warehouse, Water Concentration System, Deluge