AT-01-11-3 -- Sprinklered Mercantile Fires PDF

This paper presents results of a project initiated by ASHRAE and the National Research Council of Canada to investigate smoke movement resulting from a sprinklered fire in a communicating space into an adjacent large open area, such as an atrium or retail mall. As part of the joint project, a large-scale test facility was established to investigate smoke flow for sprinklered fires. In this paper, the results of two full-scale fire test series are discussed. In the first series of tests, a propane burner system was used to simulate design fires, which have an initial unsteady stage followed by a fire with a constant heat release rate. A fast t-squared fire was used for the initial fire growth. This fire was allowed to grow to a predetermined heat release rate and subsequently maintained constant. The second series of full-scale tests were conducted using three fire scenarios simulating typical fire load arrangements found in retail stores. The three scenarios used were as follows: paper towels in cartons, clothing stored in boxes, and children's toys.

Units: SI