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Full-Scale Experiments of Fire Control and Suppression in Enclosed Car Parks: A Comparison Between Sprinkler and Water-Mist Systems

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Abstract

Recent efforts to investigate car-park fires and understand the related mechanisms have fostered the need for analyses of suppression performance against this type of fire scenario. This work aims at providing an insight into the ability of sprinklers and water-mist systems to control and extinguish a fire within an enclosed car park through a series of real-scale experiments. Three cars were employed in each test: the central one was ignited by a heptane pool fire and the adjacent ones served as targets. Two configurations were explored: in the first one, a nozzle was placed directly at the vertical axis of the ignition source, whereas the ignition source was located between the area coverage of four nozzles in the second one. The sprinkler system mainly served as a reference; two values of discharge density were evaluated for water mist at high operative pressure and a biodegradable surfactant was also tested against the most challenging configuration. A quantitative analysis of free-burn and discharge phases by temperature measurements was coupled with radiant heat-flux measurements and an assessment of post-fire damage. Sprinkler and water-mist systems were capable of containing the fire spread and thermally controlling the fire, thus preventing structural damage. The water mist’s ability to overpower the plume and reach the burning surfaces proved more effective than that of sprinklers, especially as no nozzles were located right above the ignition surface. The higher discharge density showed better capability of preventing re-ignition phenomena and suppression was attained in both the investigated configurations, which suggests that a certain amount of flux is also needed to achieve flame cooling. The additive had promising impact on suppression performance; however, more tests are required to specifically explore its ability to enhance thermal control.

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Notes

  1. In the present work, “glasses” refers to windows (i.e., windshield, side and rear windows) and does not include any other parts (e.g., headlamps, wing and rear-view mirrors). The vehicles employed in this study did not feature glass-panel roofs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge Mr. M. Bettati and Mr. F. Dignatici for their technical advising and helpful suggestions. This work was supported by the joint action of Bettati Antincendio S.r.l. (Italy) and Regione Emilia-Romagna (Italy) under the PRRIITT program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria “Enzo Ferrari”, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via P. Vivarelli 10, 41125, Modena, Italy

    Paolo E. Santangelo & Paolo Tartarini

  2. Department of Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland, 3106 J.M. Patterson Building, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Paolo E. Santangelo

  3. Bettati Antincendio S.r.l., Via Disraeli 8, 42124, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    Luca Tarozzi

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  1. Paolo E. Santangelo
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Correspondence to Paolo E. Santangelo.

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Santangelo, P.E., Tarozzi, L. & Tartarini, P. Full-Scale Experiments of Fire Control and Suppression in Enclosed Car Parks: A Comparison Between Sprinkler and Water-Mist Systems. Fire Technol 52, 1369–1407 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-016-0569-3

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