The BOSfluids Fire Water module provides a comprehensive set of tools for the design and evaluation of fire water systems. You can not only use those tools to assess the steady state flow conditions, but also to determine whether the system is able to withstand the transient pressures and loads that occur when the system is activated. The Fire Water module is available as an add-on to your BOSfluids license.
With the Fire Water module you can determine the pressure and flow distribution in fire water systems by using the NFPA calculation rules; determine the expected flow rate through individual sprinklers; determine the required supply pressure in order to meet the minimum flow rate through sprinklers; generate a report conforming to the NFPA requirements; simulate the flooding of empty fire water systems; and determine the fire water area coverage of one or more surfaces located below or near sprinklers. The latter takes advantage of support for defining 3-D piping models and 3-D surface areas. This is essential for accurately performing the geometry-related calculations that determine the intersection between sprinkler spray patterns and surfaces.
NFPA Analysis
An NFPA analysis yields the steady state flow rates and pressure distribution in a sprinkler system using the calculation procedures described by the NFPA 13 and 15 Standard.
The required pressure at a specified supply node is determined automatically in order to meet the specified objective.
An NFPA analysis also yields a report that complies with the requirements specified in the NFPA 13/15 Standard.
Fire Water Coverage
A Fire Water Coverage analysis yields information about the fire water coverage of surface areas by sprinklers. The steady state flow conditions and the spray profiles associated with the sprinkler are used to determine the fire water flux through each surface area.
The total fire water flux is determined by accumulating all sprinkler spray profiles that cover each surface area. In this way you not only get insight into the total fire water area coverage, but also into the distribution of the fire water over the surface areas.
You can use a collection of elemental surface types to model both simple and complex surface areas. A spray tracing algorithm ensures that the coverage analysis properly accounts for areas that cannot be wetted due to other areas blocking the spray from the sprinklers.
Filling an empty system
A flood and Drain analysis determines the transient flow conditions in the piping model when one part of it is filled with a liquid and the other part with a gas (typically air). It can be used to predict the flow conditions that occur when an empty fire water system is rapidly flooded.
This includes important effect such as the impact of the liquid on elbows and the compressibility of the gas in the system. Note that this type of analysis requires a BOSfluids transient license.
