An advanced study on automatic water-based suppression systems in several building applications

Abstract

Automatic water-based fire suppression systems, such as sprinkler systems and water mist fire suppression systems are required for special building applications, such as those in new airport and railway projects as a defence in fire safety. Several aspects associated with the system are explored in this thesis. 'Fast response type' sprinklers are required in several building applications, where prescriptive requirements on passive fire protection cannot be met. Apart from these settings, thermal sensitivity of sprinklers is not normally specified by the local fire authority. In some cases, even concealed type sprinklers had been used when 'fast response type' sprinklers were required. In this thesis, architectural characteristics of the public transport systems in Hong Kong, such as airport and railway stations, will be described. The fire hazards, including life risks and economical loss associated with these occupancies will also be presented, followed by a literature review on local and international code on associated fire protection measures. Research works were focused on: • Fire risks associated with public transport systems, including airports and railway stations; • Key aspects of requirements on thermal sensitivity of sprinklers; • Experimental studies on thermal sensitivity of various kinds of sprinklers; • Performance evaluation of heat collector plate on thermal sensitivity of sprinklers; Experiments was conducted with a wind tunnel to study thermal sensitivity of various kinds of sprinklers, including normal response, fast response and concealed type sprinklers. Besides, the effect of heat collector plates on thermal response of sprinkler heads at large halls will be discussed. In addition, appropriate fire protection systems were proposed for public transport systems. Suppression of sprinkler systems in connection to enhancing fire safety in public transport systems were investigated too. Active water mist fire suppression systems on liquid fire were also investigated. Numerical simulations on different scenarios using Computational Fluid Dynamics Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) version 6.7.4 were conducted. Cloud computing had been hired from a commercial service provider for faster simulation. Mitigating measures on these automatic water suppression systems to the associated fire risks will be suggested.