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Fire Test Summary #36/ARCH/OCT07 of 5

HI-FOG systems for archives

Product SPU/SPUD 11 Nov 2009

Marioff Corporation Oy reserves the right to revise and improve its products and recommended system configurations as it deems necessary without notification. The information contained hereinis intended to describe the status of HI-FOG products and system configuration at the time of its publication and may not reflect the product and/or system configurations at all times in the future.

Test standard No standard (application specific)

Summary The performance of an automatic HI-FOG sprinkler system was evaluated for protection ofarchives with fixed or mobile shelving. Three different fire scenarios were designed by CSTB(Scientific and Technical Centre for the Building Industry), France, to simulate various archivearrangements with paper or video cassettes as the stored material.

Qualitatively, the primary requirement for the system performance is to preserve the archives.Quantitatively the performance in the tests was evaluated based on temperatures anddamage during and after the 20 min test period prior to manual intervention. In addition,conditions for safe access for fire brigades, structural protection and water damage weregiven special attention in the evaluation.

In all tests only two HI-FOG sprinklers operated. Fire damage was restricted to the shelvescontaining the initial fire source, and the room structures were well protected. Properlyequipped fire fighters had an easy access to the remains of the fire for completing theextinguishment.

Conclusions The HI-FOG fire protection system – powered by an electric pump unit and summarized below – was shown to suppress all three test fires representative to an archive with a limited fire andwater damage.

Sprinkler Type 1N 1MC 6MC 10RA

K-factor 2.5 lpm/bar 1/2

Design pressure 80 bar

Installation Ceiling height 3 m

Max average coverage of one sprinkler 12.25 m2

Min water flux density 1.8 lpm/m2




1. Introduction

The objective of the fire testing was to demonstrate the fire suppression performance of a HI-FOG system inarchives storing paper and/or video cassettes.

For this purpose, CSTB of France developed a fuel package simulating archives with different shelf and fuel loadconfigurations. Three fire suppression tests with the HI-FOG sprinkler system were conducted.

2. Test arrangement

Test enclosure

The tests were performed in a test enclosure at CSTB with dimensions of 11 m × 11 m × 3 m (high) and one dooropening as shown in Figures 1 - 3.

Fuel package

In the paper archive tests with fixed shelves the fuel package consisted of four rows of double shelves filled witharchive boxes (Figure 1). Compact shelves were simulated by the double shelves placed tightly together as shown inFigure 2. Each archive box was filled with about 6.7 kg of paper. The total number of archive boxes was 900 andtotal mass about 6 030 kg.

In the video cassette archive test the fuel package consisted of four rows of single shelves (Figure 3) filled withdifferent types of cassettes. All the cassettes were packed in cover boxes. The total number of cassettes was 1620.

Figure 1. Fuel package arrangement (fixed shelves).Photo taken from the door.

Figure 2. Fuel package arrangement (compact shelves).Photo taken from the door.

Figure 3. Fuel package arrangement (cassette shelves).Photo taken from the door.

65 cm




Test procedure

In each test, the fire was ignited by a small tray with 500 ml of commercial heptane, placed roughly in the centre ofthe shelf configuration as shown in Figures 1 – 3. The fire was allowed to develop freely until the first sprinkleractivated. From thereon the test was continued for 20 min, after which the HI-FOG system was shut down and firefighters entered the enclosure and manually extinguished ay remaining fires.

3. The HI-FOG sprinkler system

The HI-FOG system consisted of sprinklers of type 1N 1MC 6MC 10RA equipped with a 57oC glass bulb. In a

homogeneous grid configuration the nominal spacing between the sprinklers is 3.5 m (coverage area 12.25 m2)

but in an archive-like space the intent is to place the sprinklers in the aisles as much as reasonably possible bypreserving the maximum coverage area per sprinkler.

Full protection of the current test enclosure of 121 m2 would require 10 sprinklers, but given the other boundary

conditions of

(i) the exact positioning of the shelves,

(ii) the requirement of having the ignition point at the most disadvantageous location relative to thesprinkler grid, and

(iii) the limited pump capacity available

the applied grid consisted of seven sprinklers in a configuration shown in Figure 4. The nominal protection areaper sprinkler ended up to be 11.9 m

2.

The system was operated by an electric pump unit.

Figure 4. Sprinkler arrangement.




4. Results

The relevant results of all three HI-FOG suppression tests are summarized in the Table below and in Figures 5, 6and 7. In all tests only two sprinklers activated with a supply pressure of about 125 bar. The average total water flowrate was less than 60 lpm.

Testconfiguration

Time to sprinkleractivations

Fire damage

Fixed shelves16 min 30 s (B2)

21 min 35 s (B6)

Limited within the double shelf of ignition.

Boxes with damage inside / outside: 127 / 41 (900 total)

Compactshelves

5 min 20 s (B2)

7 min 5 s (B6)

Limited within the compact shelf of ignition

Boxes with damage inside / outside: 155 / 31 (900 total)

Cassetteshelves

3 min 21 s … 3 min 50 s

(B2 & B4)

Fire limited within the single shelf of ignition, some melting(contents intact) observed in the adjacent shelf towards the door.

Damaged cassettes / melting outside: 308 / 37 (1620 total)

In all tests the fire was suppressed and it never jumped over an aisle. The heat release rate, temperatures andheat fluxes were kept within limits acceptable to CSTB. The fire fighters had an easy task to enter the room after20 min and complete the extinguishment.

Figure 5. Fixed shelf configuration (paper archive).(left) Ceiling temperature above ignition. (right) Fire damage.

Time (min)

Temperature

(deg-C)

20 min




Figure 6. Compact shelf configuration (paper archive).(left) Ceiling temperature above the ignition. (right) Fire damage.

Figure 7. Cassette shelf configuration.(left) Ceiling temperature above the ignition. (right) Fire damage.

A complete description of the tests and their results is given in aTest Report by CSTB, dated 30 October 2007

Marioff Corporation Oy • Virnatie 3 / P.O.Box 86, FI-01301 Vantaa, FinlandTel. +358 (0)9 870 851 • Fax +358 (0)9 8708 5399 • www.marioff.com

Time (min)

Tempe

rature

(deg-C)

20 min

20 min

Time (min)

Temperature

(deg-C)

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