Lag times associated with fire detection and suppression

The effectiveness of fire detection systems and fire mitigation strategies can be related to three distinct time lags associated with building fires: a transport time lag, a detection time lag, and a suppression time lag. The impacts of these lag periods on fire detection and suppression are developed. Transport lag periods are considered in terms of available correlations of fire plume and ceiling jet data, detection lag periods in terms of available heat detector response models that use these data correlations. Suppression lags are developed in terms of expected response times for automatic and manual suppression. Example calculations are presented.