The performance of an atrium sprinkler is investigated by a crude analysis and a fire field model. In the crude analysis, empirical expressions for the fire plume are used to study the thermal responses of the sprinkler head. In the field model, a set of partial differential equations describing conservation of momentum, enthalpy and mass is solved numerically to predict the airflow pattern, temperature and smoke concentration contours resulting from the fire and a sprinkler water spray. Both approaches indicate that installing sprinklers in a high-headroom atrium would not be effective in controlling fire.
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