Craig,

I have run into a very similar scenario.  I had a real concern with so much
water hitting every change in direction and dead end with *a lot* of
force.  All of the deluge valves that I know of go from being closed to
open full bore, as quickly as the clapper can open (fast).  Also, it is
important to realize that the water will not move through at the designed
minimum flow rate, but probably much faster.  In our case, we installed
seismic bracing at every elbow and near any dead ends.  This wasn't
engineered, as I'm not aware of any guidelines or requirements for
designing this bracing.  It seems to me that this is a similar concept to
thrust block design for underground piping (where the forces in a 6" elbow
can easily exceed 5,000 lbs and substantially higher than this in larger
sizes), but there are definitely some differences.  If nothing else, the
braces provided me with some peace of mind.  I felt it was important to
make sure that the braces were installed and oriented correctly. I also
made sure that no one entered the area when we did the startup testing, and
everything went well.  The bracing definitely helped.

Thinking about this more - hopefully someone will chime in... The total
pressure (velocity pressure + normal pressure) should never exceed your
initial static pressure.  If you design braces to handle this full initial
static pressure times the area of whatever size pipe you have (pi * r^2), I
would think this would be a safe calculation.  Again, I hope someone chimes
in on this.  I have been wrong more than once, so don't just take my word
for it.

I just read Roland's response.  It's good to know it hasn't been a real
world issue.  I know that I was pretty nervous about it when my name was
attached to it.  The cost of the braces was worth it to me.


- Skyler

On Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 8:59 AM Prahl, Craig/GVL <[email protected]>
wrote:

> So, I’ve got an FPE and ME questioning about water hammer in a deluge
> system.
>
>
>
> We have a unique installation where we have two levels of hose connections
> (one array at 12 ft AFF and one at 60 ft AFF) for manual firefighting in an
> unconditioned assembly building which is 145 ft high.
>
>
>
> Due to the non-heated condition, one proposed concept for a semi-automatic
> system is to use an electric release deluge valve to charge the system from
> manual pull stations.
>
>
>
> Flow rate will be 1,000 gpm at somewhere near 150ish psi though 600-800 ft
> of pipe inside the bldg.
>
>
>
> The FPE and ME are concerned with water hammer in the piping when the
> deluge valve opens based on how fast the valve opens.
>
>
>
> Has anyone dealt with or had to provide calcs for this?  NFPA 13, 14, etc.
> are fairly silent on the issue.  Is it even an issue?  I’ve never had this
> brought up before on an interior system.
>
>
>
> Anyone have any data on how fast a solenoid operated deluge valve opens?
>
>
>
> Craig Prahl | Jacobs | Group Lead – Fire Protection | 864.676.5252 |
> [email protected] | www.jacobs.com
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
> information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
> viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
> unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
> message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
> and deleting it from your computer.
> _______________________________________________
> Sprinklerforum mailing list
> [email protected]
>
> http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
>
_______________________________________________
Sprinklerforum mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org

Reply via email to