The high rise Sprinkler concept:

By Marcel Ruesink

Tyco Fire Security & Building Products

New buildings tend to be higher and higher, and heights over 45 meters
becoming very common. These buildings are densely populated and the
design of these modern buildings should be in accordance with high
esthetic-, and safety norms and on top of that should fulfill the owners
requirements.
Because these buildings are high, life safety is in the event of fire a valid
concern: elevators are out of order and the escape routes are dark from
the smoke which eliminates view, while heat and toxic gases decrease
the opportunity to survive these fires.
Big fires will produce a high heat release within two minutes which
allows the fire to grow significantly in a very short time. The Tyco
presentation will address this hazard by movies taken on burning test at
recognized test entities like Factory Mutual and NIST.

Further more, modern urban are high density areas were the streets are packed with cars,
bicycles and pedestrians. If a fire is lit it will travel through the building. The fire brigade
shall respond on the alarm that is activated. The fire brigade will be under enormous pressure
to arrive at the object as quick as possible in order to attack the fire, which could be growing
on the 24th floor.

There are options to control, suppress or even extinguish the fire in

an early stage before it will grow to become uncontrollable.
Automatic fire sprinklers have been proven for decades that one or
two sprinklers will activate and control the fire at the infant stage.
The automatic fire sprinklers will respond fast and have a special
low flow (LF) spray pattern that will control the fire and prevent it
from spreading.
For residential and other high rise applications Tyco offers solutions which will smoothly
integrate in the technical- as well as esthetical requirements of the building design.

The Tyco presentation is addressing the miss-perceptions towards automatic fire sprinkler
systems and presents that LF residential fire sprinklers do not activate without the collection
of sufficient heat.
One (1) sprinkler activation will not result in flooding the building as shown in Hollywood
movies. During the presentation footage can be witnessed on how Hollywood utilizes this
misperception.
Every country in Europe demands automatic fire sprinkler protection at
different footage or building height and these regulations are getting stricter.
Conferences like the High Rise Conference are seen more and more Europe
Wide is are excellent initiative for setting clear standards.
The presentation will introduce installation standards, how to address design
issues like elevation pressures, water demand and component selection throughout the
building.

You will understand that every object in the modern buildings can
be protected by either automatic fire sprinklers in the (common)
rooms, window sprinklers to guarantee fire rates at large (design)
windows, kitchen fire protection at kitchen hoods or even fire
suppression of equipment that cannot withstand water. The
presentation displays a cut view of a building showing an overview
of protection types throughout the building. Even if the building is
erected completely out of concrete, automatic fire sprinkler can be
utilized without exposed fire sprinkler feeding pipes as the listed
automatic fire sprinkler pipes are embedded in the concrete.

Conclusion is that residential fire sprinklers systems are becoming more common. They will
be installed for a variety of reasons which include:
• Life safety.
• Property safety
• Business continuity
• Fire Service recommendation.
o Compensate inadequate fire service access.
o Higher than the ladder, which is around 60 meters.
o Additional Fire Service Efficiency
• The decision of the architect.
o To allow for open plan design.
o More windows
• Cost effective:
o Reduce passive protection
o Instead of external protected staircase and/or internal doors.
• Thus less fire stairs, less hydrants, lower fire construction ratings.

Questions can be addressed to:

Mr: Eward Veerman, E-mail: eveerman@tyco-bspd.com