Hydrodynamic characterisation of fire sprinkler system of a passenger railroad car.

Craig, Matthew; Younas, Muhammad; Asim, Taimoor

Abstract

Fire safety is one of the major concerns in the public transport and thus passenger trains in the UK seek continuous improvement in passenger safety and comfort. In order to combat fire, there is a legal requirement in most countries across the global to install a fire suppression system within passenger railroad cars. In the event of fire, the thermal sensors trigger high pressure flow of hydrant through nozzles into the railroad car, thus supressing the fire. The efficient design of fire suppression system is highly dependent on the operational parameters of the system. The published literature, although abundant in investigating the flow characteristics through nozzles, severely lacks in conjugating this with fire suppression. Thus, in the present study, extensive parametric investigations have been carried out on the operational and design parameters of a conventional fire suppression system using an integrated approach i.e., hydrant flow and combustion. Advanced numerical techniques have been employed to evaluate the hydrodynamic characteristics of the fire suppression system based on the size of droplets of the hydrant from exiting the nozzles and the flow rate of the hydrant. The effects of these parameters on the temperature and the concentration of soot particles within the passenger railroad car have been evaluated. The results show that smaller sized hydrant droplets (250um) are more effective in supressing the fire in enclosures compared to larger droplets (750um), while higher flow rates tend to supress the fire more efficiently. It is envisaged that the results obtained in the present study will help in developing more efficient fire suppression systems for passenger railroad cars.

Citation

CRAIG, M., YOUNAS, M. and ASIM, T. 2023. Hydrodynamic characterisation of fire sprinkler system of a passenger railroad car. International journal of condition monitoring and diagnostic engineering management (COMADEM) [online], 26(3), pages 15-23. Available from: https://apscience.org/comadem/index.php/comadem/article/view/403

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 17, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Aug 17, 2023
• Publication Date: Sep 30, 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 15, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 15, 2023
• Journal: International journal of condition monitoring and diagnostic engineering management (COMADEM)
• Electronic ISSN: 1363-7681
• Publisher: COMADEM International
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 15-23
• Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics; Fire sprinkler; Railroad car; Fire propagation; Hydrant
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2079335
• Publisher URL: https://apscience.org/comadem/index.php/comadem/article/view/403