We may get some sprinklers in the above-cloud level activating...depends on if the fire starts at the edge of a cloud. Most office/commercial spaces have 8-10 ft ceilings, and fires under these are usually controlled with 1, 2 sometimes 3 sprinklers. There won't be enough fire left to activate too many above-cloud level sprinklers given a cloud large enought that it has several rows of sprinklers across it. The rub seems to be, what happens at the --- edge of the clouds? The obstruction posed by clouds to sprinkler spray seems to be a 2nd order effect, as some water from the above-cloud level activated-sprinklers will get to a fire at the edge of a cloud.
A couple or handful of under-cloud sprinklers seems a reasonable addition, and not too onerous a solution, to the overhead design area. FM guidelines are HPR, is that what we want for our bread-and-butter commercial/office applications? This is not a solution to the problem, just food for thought to those that got the time and the money to burn themselves a full-scale test solution. Nor are these thoughts written as an engineering solution, they are written from a fire point-of-view, which all, NFPA notwithstanding, can do. Scot Deal Excelsior Fire Engineering _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
