Suppression Of Rack-storage Fires By Water

A s e r i e s of large-scale f i r e suppression t e s t s was conducted for two d i f f e r en t commodities stored in s t e e l racks of d i f fe ren t heights , and were analyzed using a global heat balance model. In these t e s t s , water was applied uniformly on top of the storage array a t selected f i r e s i z e s t o determine the f i r e suppress ib i l i ty fo r a commodity a t a given storage height. A f i r e suppression parameter was used t o correlate the f i r e suppression r e s u l t s of these t e s t s . The f i r e suppression parameter is a function of fuel dens i ty , f u e l s p e c i f i c heat , igni t ion temperature, heat of combustion, burning r a t e , heat of pyrolysis , and water application r a t e . The data indicate tha t the combustible packaging and overal l storage arrangement have s ign i f ican t impact on the magnitude of the c r i t i c a l water density fo r f i r e suppression.