Fire Sprinkler Coverage Area Calculation

A single fire sprinkler can cover an impressively large area with modern fire codes allowing a single head to protect more than 200 square feet in some environments.

Fire sprinkler coverage area calculation. Obviously if the sprinkler has enough pressure to deliver the design density to one wall it s going to have to deliver the same density in all directions. Calculation procedures are established in model codes. This is important read it carefully. In some circumstances standard distribution sprinkler heads will not provide enough coverage.

Extended coverage sprinklers have a water distribution radius of a little over 10 feet so they can be spaced approximately 20 feet apart. In these cases extended coverage sprinkler heads can be installed to increase the spacing between heads. The first sprinkler in the hydraulic calculations is so critical in getting it right. Hydraulic calculations are a very important step when designing fire protection systems since they ensure the flow rate established through the piping network will be enough to control fires effectively.

The first step is to calculate the minimum flow which will be required at the most remote sprinkler which in this case is at node 130 this is a two step process as will need to calculate the minimum flow required to satisfy the 7 50 mm min design density and then find the flow rate from the sprinkler given the sprinklers minimum pressure requirement whichever is the greater flow will. 15 mm min x 7 5m 2 112 50 l min. Residential extended coverage cmsa and esfr sprinklers start with a beginning pressure and flow. Placing sprinklers too close to walls to each other or to obstacles can make a fire much more likely to spread.

Because fire sprinklers are heat activated sprinkler heads must be located high up on or near the ceiling. Sprinklers must be quick response standard or extended coverage and pendent or uprights nfpa 13 2016 8 15 24 2 1 extended coverage sprinklers cannot be more than 16 ft x 16 ft spacing nfpa 13 2016 8 15 24 2 1 1 maximum ceiling height cannot exceed 20 feet nfpa 13 2016 8 15 24 2 2. It can t be used to reduced the area of coverage for a hydraulic calculation without the sprinkler being required to be over spaced off of one wall. Sprinkler head location and coverage.

We can now calculate the minimum flow rate from the fire sprinkler to provide the required design density this can be found from the equation. Without this overlap it would be impossible to design sprinkler systems that provided uniform water continue reading sprinkler coverage nozzle. Sprinkler heads must be unobstructed to provide maximum flow to the areas that need it. There are two main criteria for determining the location of sprinkler heads.

Automatic sprinkler systems are subject to nfpa 13 national fire protection association in the usa while the the international. Other sprinklers have to be determined by taking the density times the protection area per sprinkler in section 8 5 2 1. Q flow rate from the fire sprinkler d design density a area of coverage for the fire sprinkler. This means they cannot be blocked.

But there s more to sprinkler placement than square footage.