Computational Fluid Dynamics KCEC 4113

Long Term Assignment Water Distribution Characteristic of Fire Sprinkler

Mohammad Hafiz Bin Abu Hassan KEC 070016

i.

Introduction

Most fire event happened to industrial building including warehouses or factories will cause thousand to million ringgit damage plus casualties to people if the fire is not control immediately. To solve this problem, early fire protection systems are needed where in this case automatic fire sprinklers are the solution.

Fire sprinkler is a common fire suppression system for tall building nowadays. Rules and regulation have stated that building with height more than 23 meters above or below fire department access should has fire sprinkler system where adequate hose stream for fire fighters are limited. Due to complexity of architecture of building and safety demand, various types of sprinklers have been design to cater fire suppression industry. But on the other side, because of complexity of the fire sprinkler design and interaction between air, water and fire, there is no best engineering solution to provide suitability of sprinkler design to specific condition. This is where role of engineers experience take part to decide what is the best fire sprinkler design should be install based on his/her limited number of large scale design experiment that may not fit in real life scenario. High cost for simulate real scenario and large scale experiment, plus complexity of the physics of sprinkler distribution characteristic and interaction between air and fire, forces designer to simulate the problem using computational simulation. The advancement of computer hardware and software capability greatly helps engineers allowing them to look in detail the water distribution characteristic of sprinkler design. In this assignment, 3 designs of sprinkler will be used to simulate the water distribution characteristic. Each simulation are designed in controlled parameter so that only design of the sprinkler would affect the water distribution.

ii.

Literature Review

Design of Sprinkler A typical sprinkler design will have a circular orifice for water outlet from main pipe and a circular deflector cap so that jet of water impacting the deflector cap will be distributed in water droplets below the sprinkler. A typical sprinkler use in industrial building usually discharges water in the range from 75litres/min to 150litres/min. The surface tension of water around 0.0712N/m at 25C will causes the water to form into droplets after hitting the deflector. The dimension of orifice is designed to a known water flow rate for specific water pressure. Bernoullis equation is use in the design where the velocity of the water through orifice is proportional to the water pressure, P. In sprinkler application, volumetric flow rate, Q, is more concern than water velocity. Therefore orifice equation is written as

Small letter k is the orifice flow coefficient. The value k is nominally proportional to the square of the orifice diameter1. The units used for the k are minute-1 bar-1/2 or gallons minute-1 psi-1/2.

Code of sprinkler is shown as Figure 1 and dimensions of sprinkler are shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 1 Sprinkler Code

Figure 2 Sprinkler Dimension

Sprinkler Dimensions Parameter \ Code Orifice coefficient, K Frame arm distance Frame arm thickness Frame arm Width 1 Frame arm width 2 Deflector width Deflector notch width Deflector notch depth No of notches Deflector thickness Height of deflector over orifice
Table 1 Sprinkler Dimensions

P10 A 40 19 4 9 4 30 2 4 16 1 33

P11A 50 18 4 6 3 23 2 5 16 1 35

P13A 79 20 6 8 4 32 1 6 16 1 32

P13B 81 23 6 8 4 27 2 6 12 1 38

P14A 115 25 4 6 3 25 3 4 16 1 33

P16A 161 25 4 6 3 27 3 5 16 1 33

Water Distribution Due to variability in design of sprinkler, the water distribution also may vary depending on the design. In installing of sprinkler, it is important that the engineer has selected the best design. The water distribution can be measured using ten pan test where ten pan tests are conducted using one sprinkler located above a rotating array of pans. This test provides a measure of the flux of water in radial distance.

Figure 3 Ten Pan Test

From the ten pan tests, several design of sprinklers result are collected. Figure 4 shows the radial water distribution result.

Figure 4 Sprinkler Water Distribution in Radial Distance

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Models of Fire Sprinkler

In this assignment, 3 designs of sprinkler are created using Pro Engineering 5 CAD software. The 3 designs are based on P10A, P11A and P13A sprinkler. P10A Type Sprinkler

Figure 5a P10A Sprinkler 3D Model

Figure 5b P10A Sprinkler Model Dimensions

P11A Type Sprinkler

Figure 6a P11A Sprinkler 3D Model

Figure 6b P11A Sprinkler Model Dimensions

P13A Type Sprinkler

Figure 7a P13A Sprinkler 3D Model

Figure 7b P13A Sprinkler Model Dimensions

iv.

Simulation

The model drawn in Pro Engineering then converted into IGES file. In Ansys Workbench, the IGES file is imported for the analysis to be done. Fine meshing is used to obtain the accurate meshing especially at the deflector notch area. Simulation Parameter

No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Parameter Domain Domain size Particle definition Buoyancy Reference density Fluid model Surface tension coefficient Drag coefficient

Value Fluid Domain 3m x 3m x 3m Water Air -9.81m/s (gravity) 997kg/m3 (water density) Laminar 0.0712N/m 0.44 Subsonic Bulk mass flow rate 1.25kg/s Subsonic Bulk mass flow rate 10kg/s 50

Inlet

10

Outlet

11

Iterations

Table 2 Simulation Parameter

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Result

P10A Type Sprinkler

Figure 8a - General View

Figure 8b - Top View

Figure 8c Water Distribution

Figure 8d Velocity Vector

P11A Type Sprinkler

Figure 9a - General View

Figure 9b - Top View

Figure 9c Water Distribution

Figure 9d Velocity Vector

P13A Sprinkler

Figure 10a - General View

Figure 10b - Top View

Figure 10c Water Distribution

Figure 10d Velocity Vector

No 1 2 3

Sprinkler P10A P11A P13A

Distribution Range 2.25m 2.60m 1.15m 1.60m 1.60m 2.30m

Table 3 Water Distribution Range

vi.

Discussion

For each of the simulation, the only variable parameter is the design of the sprinkler. The water flow rate is fixed at 1.25kg/s. We can see that a very small dimension change would affect a very significant water distribution range. The longest range is the P10A sprinkler because the deflector diameter is the 2nd biggest plus the orifice is the smallest thus giving more pressure for the water flow. The lowest range is the P11A; the main factor for the small range is because the deflector cap diameter is the smallest compare to the other 2 sprinklers. For P13A, although the pressure is the lowest at the orifice due to large diameter of the orifice, the deflector cap is the biggest among the other that would increase the distribution range. The water range distribution at the left and right are lower because the arm of the sprinkler blocking the water supply. The arm design should be small enough to reduce blocking of water while rigidly maintain the distributor cap without vibrating. Each design of sprinkler has its own design and orifice coefficient; K. Based on the design and coefficient value, every sprinkler has its own characteristic of water distribution. Therefore selection of sprinkler should be consider the water supply pressure, height from ceiling to floor and water distribution effectiveness besides sensitivity of the sprinkler and aesthetic value.

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Conclusion

There are many types of sprinkler available for fire suppression purpose. Each of the design would affect water distribution. The most important design of a sprinkler are the orifice diameter to control the pressure and flow rate; and distribution cap diameter to deflect the water according to the water distribution needed. Most of sprinklers water radial distribution ranges from 0m to 2.7m.

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References

Sheppard D.T., Spray Characteristic of Fire Sprinklers, NIST GCR 02-838, Northwestern University, Illinois, June 2002. Archtoolbox, Architect Technical Reference, Sprinkler Head Spacing and Location, Retrieved April 2011, from http://www.archtoolbox.com/materials-systems/fire-supression/83sprinklerspacing.html