Comparison of European Conventional and U.S. Spray Sprinklers

Abstract

Twelve large-scale fire tests were conducted to compare the fire protection performances of selected European conventional style and U.S. spray sprinklers. Two different fire test scenarios were investigated. The assessment of sprinkler effectiveness was based upon total numbers of sprinkler operations and resulting fire damage to the fuel arrays. Using these criteria, both European conventional-style sprinklers and U.S. spray sprinklers provided control of fires for the scenarios in which they were evaluated. However, there were differences in the levels of protection provided. In general, the spray sprinklers provided better fire protection than European conventional-style sprinklers under identical test conditions. In tests involving high- challenge plastic commodityfires, the spray sprinklers provided significantly better fire protection. For moderate-to-high challenge commodity fires involving a simulated noncombustible product in cardboard cartons, the relative performance of the two types of sprinklers depended upon the ignition location relative to overhead sprinklers.