Spatially-resolved spray measurements and their implications

Abstract

Fire sprinkler manufacturers have developed a great variety of application specific sprinkler designs. Advances in product development practices, performance based design, risk analysis, and fire suppression research have increased stakeholder interest in quantifying the spray produced by these devices. These sprinkler spray patterns consist of complex spatio-stochastic features originating near the sprinkler head. A Spatially-resolved Spray Scanning System (4S) has been developed to capture the complete spatio-stochastic nature of the spray at its point of origin for documentation and analysis. The 4S synthesizes spray measurements, transport analysis, and statistical representation frameworks providing high-fidelity spray characteristics suitable for evaluation of component-level performance (e.g. sprinkler spray pattern uniformity) or system-level performance (e.g. fire suppression system simulations). Each sprinkler's unique spray pattern is captured through optical and mechanical probing of the spray over a measurement (or initialization) surface close to the sprinkler head (0.4−0.8m) and analyzing local drop characteristics (e.g. drop size, velocity, and volume flux). These high-fidelity 4S spray measurements consisting of terabyte scale data densities present remarkable challenges with regard to data management, test repeatability, and test timing. These challenges are addressed through integration of automation, flow control, data acquisition, and data analysis systems. Spatially-resolved sprinkler spray measurements are presented providing insight into the sprinkler spray patterns and their connection with deflector geometry. Comparisons between far-field spray dispersion measurements and simulations initialized with 4S measurements demonstrate unprecedented agreement further highlighting the value of spatially-resolved sprinkler measurements for modern suppression analysis.