New research, co-authored but Born to Engineers ‘Yusuf Muhammad‘, has show that traditional fire sprinklers become less effective at saving lives the slower the fire burns.
The research looked at the problem of slow burning fires, these often take longer to trigger a traditional sprinkler because of the the heat required to activate them.
The study, funded by an Innovate UK Smart Grant, was undertaken by Plumis, Ashton Fire and OFR Consultants who looked at how newer electronic activation could improve fire safety.
The tests undertaken showed that a concealed fire sprinklers would activate anywhere between 2-and-13 times more slowly than an electronically controlled automatic watermist fire suppression systems.
The researchers also developed a brand new test protocol for assessing active fire suppression systems in slow growing fires and were created a fire engineering model to quantify the impact a systems can have on survivability.
Yusuf Muhammad, co-founder at Plumis explained that “many domestic fires are slow burning and remain in the room of origin [and] speed of activation is very important for a vulnerable occupant, as they may be unable to move away from the heat source”.
The findings of the new research should now be able to provide fire engineers with the evidence they need to confidently represent watermist suppression systems in performance-based assessments – ensuring that building designers are able to fit the most suitable fire suppression system.
Yusuf Muhammad – Born to Engineer
While there has been a big reduction in fire fatalities in the UK in the last 30 years there remains a big fire safety challenge with an ageing population and increasing prevalence of dementia. Yusuf Muhammad has put his engineering skills to use to find new ways to protect vulnerable residents.
