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Author
Madrzykowski, D.
Title
Evaluation of Sprinkler Activation Prediction Methods.
Coporate
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Book or Conf
Interscience Communications Limited. ASIAFLAM '95. International Conference on Fire Science and Engineering, 1st. Proceedings. March 15-16, 1995, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 211-218 p., 1995
Keywords
fire science | fire protection engineering | sprinklers | evaluation | experiments | compartments | large scale fire tests | sprinkler activation
Identifiers
activation time
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of sprinkler activation models to predict activation time. Large scale compartment fire tests were used to obtain activation times for four different types of sprinklers. The tests were conducted in an 18.9 m by 9.1 m by 2.35 m high compartment using floor based, gas burner fires with constant heat release rates of 115, 155, 215, 290 and 520 kW. Non-dimensional sprinkler radial position, r/H, of 0.67 and 1.3 were evaluated. In addition to sprinkler activation times, ceiling jet temperature, velocity and radiation measurements were made. The study included: (1) a review of public domain, personal-computer based, single-compartment thermal-detector activation models, (2) an analysis of predicted vs. experimental sprinkler activation times and (3) a method to determine the applicability of current sprinkler activation models.