Monthly Technical Articles
Explore our collection of articles written by engineers, for engineers. Categorized based on the COPE approach to assessing risk within a facility, the archives below contain essential information for the development of engineers in our field.
Smoke Vents
Roof vents were originally used as an aid to fire fighting in unsprinklered buildings. When a fire occurs, the smoke and hot gases rise until they reach the ceiling. They then spread outward and down...
Cooling Towers
Cooling towers are very common in commercial/industrial occupancies. They may be used to for air conditioning needs or for process cooling for certain types of production equipment. Towers used for...
Performance Based Hydraulic Fluid Testing
Many processes involve pressurized combustible oil in hydraulic systems. When such fluids are inadvertently released due to a break or leak in hoses and pipe systems an atomized spray can result...
Pre-planning the Installation of a Fire Sprinkler System
One of changes in the 2002 Edition of NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems that often goes unnoticed or enforced is the requirement of a building owner or their authorized...
A Financial Incentive for Building Owners to Install an Automatic Sprinkler System
There are thousands of buildings in the United States that were built involving building codes that did not require automatic sprinkler protection. Most of them now have grandfather status and are...
A Closer Look at Suppression-Mode Upright Sprinklers
Our August 2003 article briefly described the different types of suppression-mode sprinklers. We'll now explain the reasons leading to the development of suppression -mode upright heads. When...
Electrical Design in Hazardous Areas
If you store, process or generate combustible liquids or dusts, the fire and explosion potential is reason enough to be concerned about the electrical design for the areas involved. The extent of the...
Water Supplies for Fire Protection
When analyzing an existing sprinkler system or designing a new system, one of the key factors is the available volume and pressure of the water supply. If the occupancy is such that the automatic...
Fire Protection under Mezzanines
Mezzanines are commonly used to maximize building space and ergonomics in both production and storage areas. The need for automatic sprinkler protection beneath a mezzanine with a solid deck/floor is...
Another Look at Seismic Protection for Sprinklers
Determining the need for seismic protection for a sprinkler system and designing the protection used to be a straightforward task. The designer would look on an Earthquake Zone Map in NFPA 13 to see...
Wildfires
Wildfires have always been a concern in the United States. There have been recent wildfires in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Florida. Wildfires can cause ignition to a building by: flying...
Sprinkler System Design Data
There was a time when hydraulic design of automatic sprinkler systems was unusual. The process was cumbersome and time consuming even for the simplest of pipe arrangements. Access to computers...