Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Data acquired during tests involving full-scale, sprinklered, compartment fires are presented and analyzed. Attention is focused on key features of the typical sprinkler link deployment/response problem. It is found that the elevated-temperature, smoke layer which develops inevitably in compartment fires can have a major impact,/on the thermal response of sprinkler links. It is shown that traditionally accepted methods of predicting sprinkler link response which do not account for this upper layer can be totally inadequate, Link response predictions used here involve a method of calculation which does take account of the smoke layer. Favorable comparisons between predictions and experiment are obtained and further validation of the method is recommended. Finally, it is found that sprinkler link-to-ceiling spacing can have a significant effect on the thermal response of links and it is recommended that a method which accounts for this effect be developed and validated.