NIST Sponsored Research in Sprinkler Performance Modeling.
NIST Sponsored Research in Sprinkler Performance
Modeling.
(158 K)
McGrattan, K. B.; Floyd, J. E.
Research and Practice: Bridging the Gap. Fire
Suppression and Detection Research Application
Symposium. Proceedings. Fire Protection Research
Foundation. January 23-25, 2002, Tampa, FL, 238-246 pp,
2002.
Keywords:
fire suppression; fire detection; fire research; fire
safety; fire models; sprinklers; droplets; evaporation
Abstract:
Rapidly changing building designs, uses, materials,
contents, fire protection and the general intermix of
industrial/commercial and residential occupancies has
created a need to understand the potential hazards and
losses from fires and the performance of fire protection
systems under conditions that may not be specifically
addressed by historic fire testing and codes. In the
absence of an accurate understanding of potential fire
events, excessively conservative decisions may be made,
usually increasing costs and creating barriers to
innovation. It is impractical, and in many cases too
hazardous, to physically test all fire scenarios of
interest. In cooperation with industry, a numerical fire
model, Fire Dynamics Simulator, is being developed at
NIST to evaluate the performance of fire protection
systems in buildings. The model has been used to
generate predictions of fires in industrial facilities
protected entirely or in part by automatic fire
sprinklers. The heart of the model is a Large Eddy
Simulation (LES) based fire nodel with the capability of
simulating large scale industrial fires. Because the
model provides far more detailed simulations than zone
models can, it requires more detailed information about
the fuels, building materials and fire protection
systems. The Building and Fire Research Laboratory at
NIST has supported efforts, both internally and through
its grants program, to develop measurement techniques to
generate this information. These measurements include
droplet size distributions, spray patterns, droplet
trajectories, and heat transfer coefficients. The
results of these studies will be used as input to the
model so that realistic sprinklers systems can be
evaluated.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899