Fire Detection systems

Why?
• When designing a fire protection system, it
is important to understand and identify the
characteristics and fuel material of a
potential fire, the environment in which the
detector will be sited and the risk of fire.
 Heat detectors
• A heat detector is a device that detects heat
and can be either electrical or mechanical in
operation.
• The most common types are the thermocouple
and the electro-pneumatic, both respond to
changes in ambient temperature.
• Typically, if the ambient temperature rises
above a predetermined threshold, then an alarm
signal is triggered.
 Heat detectors
• Heat detector scan be electronic or
mechanical, fixed temperature set point or
rate of rise,and spot type or linear.
 Thermistor
• Electronic heat detectors use a thermistor
as the primary
• heat sensing device.
• A thermistor is a component whose
resistance changes with temperature.
• Electronic heat detectors usually have
some additional features, such as LED
indicators that blink to indicate proper
standby operation.
 Types of heat detectors
• Rate-of-rise heat detectors
• Fixed temperature heat detectors
 Rate-of-rise heat detectors

• Rate-of-rise (ROR) heat detectors react to the

sudden change or rise in ambient
temperature from a normal baseline condition.
• Any sudden temperature increase that matches
the predetermined alarm criteria will cause an
alarm.
• This type of heat detector can react to a lower
threshold condition than would be possible if the
threshold were fixed.
• A typical alarm may sound when the rate of
temperature rise exceeds 12° to 15°F per
minute.
Fixed temperature heat detectors

• Fixed threshold, or rate compensated heat

detectors react to a preset threshold and
will not activate until the preset threshold
is crossed, regardless of the rate of
temperature increase.
• If there is too much thermal lag in the
design, the alarm threshold can be
exceeded before an alarm condition is
indicated
 Smoke detectors
• Smoke detectors are recommended since
they give the highest level of protection,
and must be used in escape routes for life
safety systems to provide sufficient early
warning to allow the evacuation of
occupants.
 Types of smoke detectors
• Two types of smoke
detector are
recognised by
standards as good,
general-purpose fire
detectors:
• Ionisation smoke
detectors
• Optical smoke
detectors
 Smoke detectors
All smoke detectors consist of two basic
parts:
• a sensor to sense the smoke and
• a very loud electronic horn to wake
people up.
 Photoelectric detectors

• Inside the smoke detector there is a light and a sensor, but they are
positioned at 90-degree angles to one another
• In the normal case, the light from the light source on the left shoots
straight across and misses the sensor. When smoke enters the
chamber, however, the smoke particles scatter the light and some
amount of light hits the sensor
• The sensor then sets off the horn in the smoke detector.
 Ionisation smoke detectors
• have a high sensitivity to fires that produce
small smoke particles ie fast-burning,
flaming fires that can burn for some time
without generating much smoke.
• These detectors are widely used for
applications such as printing workshops,
paper mills and paint and solvent stores,
as well as for general purposes.
• An ionization chamber is very
simple. It consists of two plates
with a voltage across them,
along with a radioactive source
of ionizing radiation, like this
• americium -ionize the oxygen
and nitrogen atoms of the air in
the chamber
• When smoke enters the
ionization chamber, it disrupts
this current -- the smoke
particles attach to the ions and
neutralize them. The smoke
detector senses the drop in
current between the plates and
sets off the horn.
 Ionization detector
• This one consists of a
printed circuit board an
ionization chamber (the
silver cylinder toward the
top right in the following
picture) and an
electronic horn (the
brass cylinder toward the
bottom right in the
following picture)
 Optical smoke detectors
• are particularly well suited to detecting
slow-burning, smouldering fires which
produce smoke with large particles.
• They are widely used for protection in
areas such as bedrooms, escape
corridors, electrical switch rooms and lift-
motor rooms, as well as for general
purposes.
 Multisensor detectors
• are a combination of an optical smoke
detector and a heat detector which means
they are good general purpose detectors that
respond well to a range of fires: smouldering
fires (the optical element) and fast-burning fires
(heat element).
• The purpose of combining sensors in this way is
to enhance the detection performance or its
resistance to certain types of phenomena likely
to cause a false alarm or both.
• They are well suited to environments such as
hotel bedrooms and warehouse loading bays.
 CO fire detectors
• They sense the levels of carbon monoxide (CO)
given off by all carbon-based materials in the
smouldering stages of a fire and may be used
for early warning of fire in certain well-defined
circumstances.
• CO fire detectors are resistant to certain
environmental conditions that can result in
false alarms, such as dust, steam and cigarette
smoke whilst responding to many types of fire
faster than heat detectors.
• CO fire detectors are ideal for protecting small
volume sleeping risk areas.
 Optical Beam detectors
• work by detecting smoke that obscuring a
beam of infra-red light sent from a
transmitter to a receiver.
• This operating principle means they are
particularly well suited to protecting large,
open spaces such as atria, churches and
warehouses.
 Flame detectors
• are designed to detect either the ultraviolet
(UV) or infra-red (IR) radiation emitted by a
fire and these types of detector can detect even
gas fires which are not visible to the naked eye.
• They are effective in protecting areas where
open flaming fires may be expected or where
detection needs to be unaffected by air currents
and tolerant of fumes, vapours and dust.
• Such applications include oil refineries,
power plants, paper works and car factories.
 Mechanical heat detectors
• Mechanical heat detectors can either be
bi-metallic or pneumatic.
• Fixed temperature detectors tend to be
less costly to design and produce than
other varieties. Sometimes a rateof- rise
component is added to a fixed
temperature design.