Fire 4 Principles of Sprinkler

Design and Sizing

Rafay Hasan

Advantages of Sprinklers
Installation of a sprinkler system:

may permit:
larger containment areas
reduced fire rating of containment walls
longer distances to protected fire escape routes

might be a requirement of insurers

can result in lower insurance premiums

Provided installed to exacting

requirements!

Protects life

Protects building
and contents

Sprinkler system requirements

Must be designed and sized to LPC rules/BS EN 12845 including:

Be appropriate for the particular fire hazard

Operate sufficiently fast
Deliver sufficient water to the fire
Provide adequate spray coverage over the fire
Operate for sufficiently long
Be highly reliable
Raise alarm and indicate fire zone
Be fully automatic
Include constant monitoring
Allow for regular testing

Pre-calculated
v
Fully hydraulically designed
Pre-calculated utilise tables in BS EN 12845
simpler but less flexible
may not be optimum solution
may not be appropriate in all cases

Full hydraulic design application of fire engineering design

and fluid mechanics
requires expert designer
needs to demonstrate compliance
becoming more common in larger buildings

Fire Hazard Classification

BS EN 12845
Light Hazard
Ordinary Hazard
High Hazard Process
High Hazard Storage

- LH
OH (four categories)
HHP (four groups)
HHS (four categories)

Low Hazard
Low density of
combustible material

Offices
Educational
Prisons
Where <126m2 30min
containment area

Ordinary Hazard

High Hazard Process

High Hazard Storage

Where there is a medium

fire load and materials
with medium
combustibility are
processed or
manufactured

Where there is a high fire

load and materials with
high combustibility so
that an intense fire could
develop quickly

Where materials are

stored of varying
combustibility but
stacked to significant
height

OH 1
Hospital
Hotel
Restaurant
Offices/Educational >
126m2

HHP 1
Printing works

HHS 1
Ceramics

OH 2
Laundry
Museum
Car Park

HHP 2
Carpet factory

HHS 2
Books

OH 3
Department Stores
Plant rooms
Clothing factory

HHP 3
Car tyre factory

HHS 3
Corrugated Cardboard
rolls stored horizontally

OH 4
Exhibition Hall
Saw Mill

HHP 4
Fireworks factory

HHS 4
Corrugated Cardboard
rolls stored vertically

Performance criteria

hazard
rating
LH
OH1
OH2
OH3
OH4

BS 12845
derived data
minimum design
density
maximum floor
cooling fire load that
can be
(mm water per area over which water potential
2
sprinklers
flow rate of water accommodated
minute per m
2
2
floor area)
operate (m )
(L/s)
(MW)
(MJ/m )
2.25
84
3.15
8.19
117
5
72
6
15.6
260
5
144
12
31.2
260
5
216
18
46.8
260
5
360
30
78
260
Based on cooling effect of water is 2.6
MW/(l/s) and fire burns out in 1200 s

0.5

flow rates from sprinklers = k.P

pressure drop
1
bar
size (mm)
k
Q L/s
15
57
1.0
20
80
1.3
25
115
1.9

Spacing of sprinkler heads

Extracted from BS EN
14285:2009 section 12

Pipework layout

Extracted from BS EN
14285:2009 section 12

Pipework layout

Limit to number of heads per range pipe

Maximum permissible pipe resistance or pipe size
Maximum number of heads on one zone alarm valve
Maximum height difference between heads served by
same pump set

Grid layout
Extracted CIBSE
Guide E

Grid systems reduces pipe sizes

pumps
Capable of achieving required flow rate for least
favoured and most favoured circuits
Duty and standby pumps
Located in fire protected enclosure
Secure electrical supply or diesel engine driven
Can use gravity or pressurised tanks instead of
pumps or sometimes mains supply

tanks
Sized to provide flow rate (to most favoured
circuit) for stated time period
LH 30 minutes
OH 60 minutes
HHP and HHS 90 minutes

Can allow for in-fill rate subject to status of

mains water supply

Examples of Pre-Calculated storage

Hazard/type of
system
LH

Height dfference
between sprinklers
(m)

Minimum storage capacity (m3)

Without infill

With Infill
(duplicate mains)

<15

OH 1 Wet

<15
15-30
30-45

55
70
80

10
10
10

OH2 Wet or
OH1 Alternate Wet Dry

<15
15-30
30-45

105
125
140

20
20
20

OH 3 Wet or
OH2 Alternate Wet Dry

<15
15-30
30-45

135
160
185

30
30
30