Experimental study on fire sources for full-scale fire testing of simple sprinkler systems installed in multiplexes

Abstract

Fires are accidents that can cause numerous human casualties in multiplexes. The simple sprinkler systems applied in South Korea employ sprinklers to protect people against residential fires, as specified by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard 13D. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the fire control performance of multiplexes, which are at a greater risk than residential facilities. This study aims to verify the fire control performance of simple sprinklers in multiplexes and to develop a fire source that can be used as a protocol for testing fire suppression methods. The fire source was evaluated by using a 3 MW large-scale calorimeter (ISO 13784). The proposed fire source for multiplexes was applied in various forms according to the application methods, with ignition sources including cotton wick, wood crib, and heptane, and then the fire tests were conducted.