Improvement of Fire Detection in Rack-type Warehouses using FDS

Abstract

The occurrence of fire in rack-type warehouses may either lead to the warehouses getting entirely burned up or collapsing. This can be attrubuted to the high height of rack-type warehouses, in which combustibles are generally vertically stacked. These characteristics make it difficult to detect a fire early; because detectors are installed on the ceiling, these fires cannot be extinguished at an early stage. In this study, the flow of heat and smoke generated by a fire in a rack-type warehouse was analyzed using a fire dynamic simulator. Through this analysis, the optimal installation conditions of fire detectors for the early detection of fire in rack-type warehouses were confirmed. The analysis results confirmed that complex detection of heat and smoke is required for the early detection of fire in rack type warehouses. Furthermore, it was found that fixed temperature detectors are not suitable for these warehouses, resulting in the need to install heat-smoke hybrid detectors at every three rack levels.

Optimization of Smoke-Detector Installation Location Based on Effect of Fan Equipment inside Distribution Panel on Fire Detection Performance

“…Choi et al [19] analyzed the flow of heat and smoke generated in the event of a fire in a rack-type warehouse using fire dynamic simulator (FDS) numerical analysis software. They modeled the simulation space, four-layer rack structure, and ceiling and analyzed the flow of smoke and heat generated by the flame fire based on the sensitivity of n-heptane and cotton wick.…”