EP2939714A2

EP2939714A2 - Connection layout for a fire extinguisher using high-pressure water mist and procedure for extinguishing indoor fires

Info

Publication number: EP2939714A2
Application number: EP14195887.6A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Sandor Koczka; Peter Baumstark
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-04-28
Filing date: 2014-12-02
Publication date: 2015-11-04
Also published as: HU4967U; EP2939714A3; HUP1400215A2

Abstract

The invention relates to a connection layout for a fire extinguisher using high-pressure water mist for extinguishing indoor fires, where the fire detector, the alarm unit, the sound alarm unit, and the light alarm unit is connected to the central alarm unit through electric cables, and a pump unit that moves the water from the water tank to the sprinklers is connected through pipes, and a pressure meter is installed between the pipe and the pump, and the pump unit is connected to the battery or the network power source through an electric cable. The pump aggregate containing the electric motor is connected to the battery through a frequency changer, a switch, an integrated extinguishing control mechanism, and the pressure regulator, and the pump aggregate is connected to a high-pressure mist extinguisher, fitted with sprinklers, and the pipe is fitted with a safety valve.

Description

The subject of the invention is a connection layout for a fire extinguisher using high-pressure water mist and its application procedure for extinguishing indoor fires.
Sprinklers used for extinguishing fires are supplied with water through pipes, where the pressure of water must be kept high in order to achieve high extinguishing efficiency. Numerous solutions have been developed to keep the permanent operating pressure between the specified limits. In the piston pumps applied in traditional devices used for extinguishing indoor fires, the flow may pulsate when changing volumetric flow rate is applied to move smaller volumes; this phenomenon may be reduced only to a limited extent, with low efficiency, and in an expensive and complicated manner, for example by applying a pulsation dumper or a dual piston pump. Another solution may be to use more than one pump or pump groups to provide sufficient water for the extinguisher. The literature on the state of the art includes numerous solutions for applying more than one pump.
A similar solution is presented in Chinese publication document No. CN 102120072 A . The document describes an integrated system that is fit for extinguishing fires, controls pumps, and detects the flow characteristics of fire extinguishing materials. Another solution is described in Japanese publication document No. JP2010220907 A , which describes a fire extinguisher pump unit that provides steady water supply in case of fire. The fire extinguisher pump system includes a pump that moves water in the necessary quantity from the tank to the sprinkler through pipes. The pump is powered by an electric motor. The pressure sensor signals to the water supply pump, so that the sprinklers could extinguish the fire efficiently. Another solution is described in Chinese utility model No. CN 203174673 U . The document describes a fire extinguisher system and the related pumps. The fire extinguishing water supply system includes a water tank and the related pump, which is connected to the fire safety pipe network and the outdoor water connectors through a hydrant. As the pumps are to supply both the high and low parts of the building with the extinguishing material adequately, additional supporting water pumps are used to achieve the necessary pressure. Chinese utility model No. CN 202387152 U describes a fire extinguisher system and the related water supply pumps. The description describes a water supply system that can be used to extinguish fire in multi-storey buildings. The system includes numerous units that are used for transporting water. These water transport units are serially connected. The units are connected to each other with fire hose. If the water level falls below the critical level in a unit, the relay detecting the water level turns on the pump to fill up the tank. Japanese patent document No. JP 2012024504 A describes a fire extinguishing pump that saves energy with an inverter. The fire extinguishing devices includes a pump, fire extinguishing tools, an electric motor, a tank, a hydrant, an inverter, an inverter control unit, and a pressure sensor. In case of detecting any pressure change, the control device changes the performance of the electric motor with the inverter, so that the pressure remains between the specified limits. Multiple pumps are also used to provide the operating pressure and sufficient water, such a solution is described in Chinese utility model No. CN 202712964 U , which presents an intelligent, digital EPS fire safety sytem. A battery is connected to the commercial electric power supply. The digital charger controlling the battery and a frequency changer is placed between the power source and the battery. A switch is connected to the frequency changer and the charger, and a main control unit is connected to the network power source. The digital charger controlling the battery can monitor the entire system in real time. The system can be widely used to signal fire and to operate pumps used for extinguishing fire.
The solutions described above cannot provide steady water supply to indoor fire extinguishers that have combined open and closed sprinklers and run with changing volumetric flow rate. For example, they cannot deliver the unexpectedly high performance that may be needed in case of fire or the volumetric flow rate that keeps changing during the extinguishing works. The extent of fluctuation in the volumetric flow rate depends on the applied extinguishing technique. Usually, the closed-open sprinkler ("deluge") methods are used. In case of using extinguishing devices with closed sprinklers, the warm air heated by the fire reaches the closed sprinkler, which, due to the heat, opens irreversibly, and the pressurized water turns into mist in the sprinkler, and starts to put out the fire. Also, it prevents the other closed sprinklers from opening, and thereby allows the fire to spread. Obviously, centrally controlled open sprinklers need to be used to prevent the fire from spreading efficiently.
The first pump unit starts up to replace the used water and to increase the pressure into the operating pressure range of the high-pressure water mist technique; normally, this pressure is multiple times the pressure and volumetric flow rate of a single open sprinkler. The excess volumetric flow is released from the pressure pipe through a safety valve.
The invention aims to eliminate the shortfalls of known solutions and to establish a connection layout, and to develop a procedure, that can be used to extinguish or contain indoor fires that may be caused by various means.
The solution according to the invention is based on the recognition that the connection layout of the extinguisher should be realized so that multiple pump aggregate units are connected in a parallel manner to satisfy the water need. The pump aggregate units are ran by an electric motor, and batteries are used in a number that can satisfy the quickly increasing power consumption of the electric motors. The minimum and maximum water pressure in the pipes is measured to maintain the current operating pressure. If the pressure deviates from these values at any time, additional pump units are placed into operation by the pressure stabilizer and the control unit to keep the operating pressure between the specified limits.
The most general implementation form of the connection layout according to the invention can be realized according to claim 1. The other implementation forms can be realized according to the sub-claims. The most general implementation form of the procedure according to the invention is described in claim 6. The variants of the procedure are described in the sub-claims.
The solution according to the invention is presented in detail on the drawings shown in Figure 1 and 2, which describe the connection layout showing the essence of the invention.

Figure 1 shows the connection layout according to the invention.
Figure 2 shows an advantageous implementation form of the connection layout.

Figure 1 shows the most general theoretical block diagram of the layout according to the invention. The high-pressure mist extinguisher 3 extinguishing the fire 19 on the protected surface 35 is shown clearly, where the fire detector 11, the alarm unit 15, the sound alarm unit 16, and the light alarm unit 17 is connected to the central alarm unit 27. The sprinkler 8, 12 and the safety release valve 10 is connected to the water-filled pipe 9 covering extinguishing zone 14, 18, 13 and/or 34 with water in case of fire. The pump aggregate 1 is connected to the pipe 9 to provide permanent water pressure and volumetric flow rate as measured by the pressure meter 23 and 24 and to transport water from the water tank 39. The pump aggregate 1 includes an electric motor 4, to which a frequency changer 7, operated by the switch 31, is connected. The battery connecting to the network power source 30 providing the necessary power is directly connected to the pressure regulator 6 and to the consolidated integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22.
Figure 2 shows an advantageous implementation form of the layout according to the invention:

in an advantageous implementation form of the high-pressure mist extinguisher 3, the fire detector 11, which is capable of detecting the fire 19, is connected to the central alarm unit 27 electronically. The central alarm unit 27 is directly connected to the pressure regulator 6, which forms a single unit with the integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22. The integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22 is directly connected to the frequency changer 7, which can gradually accelerate the speed of the pump unit 2 from 2 to 3 Hz to the operating state of 50 Hz. Until this speed is reached, the switch 29 allows running on battery 5 only. When the pump unit 2 reaches the stable operating speed, the device can switch to the network power source 30 or 38 using the sequencer 28.

The high-pressure mist extinguisher 3 can run on the network power source 30, or a network power source 38 used as hot back-up, or on the battery 5 used to provide the significant power needed during start-up.
In order to provide the significant power needed during start-up, the battery 5 is connected to the pump unit 2 through the integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22, the frequency changer 7, and the switch 29.
A sequencer 28 is also connected to the switch 29. The pump unit 2 is connected to the open sprinklers 8, 36, 37 through a pressure stub 32, a one-way valve 33, and a flooding valve 25. The pump unit 2 and the sprinklers 8, 36, and 37 are connected to each other through pipes 9. In case of fire, the sprinklers 36 can create a mist curtain and the sprinklers 37 can create a mist beam.
The invention covers the connection layout of the high-pressure mist extinguisher 3 in general, where the central alarm unit 27 is connected to a fire detector 11, an alarm unit 15, a sound alarm unit 16, and a light alarm unit 17 through electric cables, and a pump unit 2 that moves the water from the water tank 39 to the sprinklers 8, 12 is connected through pipes 9. A pressure meter 23 is installed between the pipe 9 and the pump, and the pump unit 2 is connected to the battery 5 or the network power source 30 through an electric cable. Other advantageous implementation forms are described below.
The pump aggregate 1 containing the electric motor 4 is connected to the battery 5 through a frequency changer 7, a switch 31, 29, an integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22, and the pressure regulator 6. The pump aggregate 1 is connected to a high-pressure mist extinguisher 3, fitted with sprinklers 8, 12, and the pipe 9 is fitted with a valve 10. The pump unit 2 is connected to the network power source 30, 38 through a switch 31, a switch 29, or a battery 5. In order to operate the pump aggregate 1, the central alarm unit 27 is in electric connection with the integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22 through the pressure regulator 6.
The pipe 9 connected to the open sprinkler 8 has a flooding valve 25, and the pump aggregate 1 is connected to the pipe 9 through a pressure stub 32 and a one-way valve 33.
A spare network power source 38 is also connected to the electric motor 4. A launcher 31 and the pump unit 2 containing an electric motor 4 is connected to the pressure regulator 6 in order to extinguish the fire 19 and to maintain the water pressure measured by the pressure meter 23, 24.
In order to protect the protected surface 35 by extinguishing the fire 19, the pressure of the water in the pipe 9 is kept between 40 and 250 bar. A pressure regulator 6 is used to achieve this level, if the signal of the pressure meter 23 measuring the minimum operating pressure is below 40 bar, and the pump aggregate 1 is turned on and/or the frequency of the electric motor 4 is increased and/or another pump aggregate 1 is placed into operation through the integrated switch 31 and under the control of the integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22, while, if the signal of the pressure meter 24 measuring the maximum operating pressure is above 250 bar, the frequency of the electric motor 4 is reduced and/or the pump aggregate 1 is switched off through the integrated switch 31.
In case of a fire 19, the fire detector 11 induces a signal and the pump unit 2 is placed into operation using the battery, and then the input frequency of the electric motor 4 is raised by the frequency changer 7 to the level of the network frequency, and then the frequency of the other electric motors 4 is set to the same frequency period as the sequencer 28 located into the integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22, while the electric motor 4 running the pump unit 2 is operated at nominal asynchronous speed, and then the switch to the network power source 30 operated mode is made by the switch 29, so the battery 5 operated mode of the frequency changer 7 is switched to network power source 30 mode.
If the fire detector 11 detects fire 19, the high-pressure mist extinguisher 3 is placed into operation automatically, and fire extinguishing is started by the water under 40 to 250 bar pressure through the closed sprinklers 12, after they are opened by the heat, and the flooding valve 25 is opened to prevent the fire 19 from spreading, thereby placing into operation the open sprinklers 8 as well.
The tasks of the individual components, sub-components, and parts of the connection layout according to the invention is presented through the following detailed examples.

Example 1:

Upon the alarm signalled by the fire detector 11 is received by the central alarm unit 27, the sound alarm unit 16, the light alarm unit 17, and the alarm unit 15 signalling at a central location (fire station, central control room) is activated. Fire extinguishing is started at the same time, meaning that the high-pressure mist extinguisher 3 is activated and the fire 19 is extinguished by the sprinkler 12 and the sprinkler 8 separately, or together. The excess water supplied with the created high-pressure mist is drained through the safety release valve 10. The operation of the water supply for the high-pressure mist extinguisher 3 according to the invention is presented in Example 1. The task is to extinguish and contain, i.e. prevent from spreading the fire on the protected surface 35. Thus, three different extinguishing zones 13, 14, and 18 - together extinguishing zone 34 - are distinguished within the protected surface 35. Fire 19 in extinguishing zones 14 and 18 are extinguished by the sprinkler 12. If the fire 19 spreads from extinguishing zone 14 to extinguishing zone 18 or extinguishing zone 13, then one or more sprinklers 12 and/or sprinklers 8 are opened above these zones, thereby protecting the consolidated extinguishing zone 34, which covers extinguishing zones 13, 14, and 18 combined.
The sprinklers 12 located above extinguishing zone 14 are supplied with water with 25 litre/minute volumetric flow and 120 bar pressure. If the fire 19 spreads to extinguishing zone 18, additional sprinklers 12 are opened with 20 l/min volumetric flow and 100 bar pressure. If the fire 19 breaks out in extinguishing zone 13 or spreads to this part of the extinguishing zone 34, then the fire 19 is extinguished by the open sprinklers 8. In order to supply water to all sprinklers 12 and 8, the pump units 2 of the high-pressure mist extinguisher 3 must provide water with 125 l/min volumetric flow and 120 bar pressure at all times.

Example 2:

In this scenario, the capacity of the network power source 30 is unfit for providing the launching current to the electric motor 4. In this example, a high-pressure mist extinguisher 3 with open sprinklers 8 is used to put out the fire 19. In the high-pressure mist extinguisher 3, water is supplied to all ten sprinklers 8 at 100 bar operating pressure and with 25 litre/minute volumetric flow to put out the fire 19, which start extinguishing the fire 19 simultaneously with the flooding valve 25 also opening at the same time. The pump aggregate 1 contains three pump units 2 with a volumetric flow capacity of 130 litre/minute each. In this scenario, in case of a fire 19, the fire detector 11 sends a signal to the alarm unit 27, which sets the frequency of the electric motor 4 to the same as that of the network power source 30 using the battery 5 and through the integrated extinguishing control mechanism 22 and the frequency changer 7. The sequencer 28 sets the period of the frequency changer 7 to the same as the network frequency. When the same frequency and period is reached using the sequencer 28, the pump unit 2 is switched to network power source 30 mode by the switch 29, so that it runs on network power source 30 thereafter.
The solution according to the invention achieved its goals and has the following advantages:

operational safety,
keeping stand-by pressure at a given level,
safe and permanent maintenance of volumetric flow and operating pressure as required for extinguishing the fire during the entire extinguishing process,
containment of the fire using the defined protection zones,
extinguishing fire while saving energy and water (only the necessary and sufficient quantity of water and power is used in the process).

Claims

Connection layout for a fire extinguisher using high-pressure water mist for extinguishing indoor fires (19), where the fire detector (11), the alarm unit (15), the sound alarm unit (16), and the light alarm unit (17) is connected to the central alarm unit (27) through electric cables, and a pump unit (2) that moves the water from the water tank (39) to the sprinklers (8, 12) is connected through pipes (9), and a pressure meter (23) is installed between the pipe (9) and the pump, and the pump unit (2) is connected to the battery (5) or the network power source (30) through an electric cable, characterized in that the pump aggregate (1) containing the electric motor (4) is connected to the battery (5) through a frequency changer (7), a switch (31, 29), an integrated extinguishing control mechanism (22), and the pressure regulator (6), and the pump aggregate (1) is connected to a high-pressure mist extinguisher (3), fitted with sprinklers (8, 12), and the pipe (9) is fitted with a safety valve (10).
The layout according to claim 1, characterized in that the pump unit (2) is connected to the battery (5) through a switch (31) or a switch (29) switching to the network power source (30, 38), and, in order to operate the pump aggregate (1), the central alarm unit (27) is in electric connection with the integrated extinguishing control mechanism (22) through the pressure regulator (6).
Any of the layouts according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the pipe (9) connected to the open sprinkler (8) has a flooding valve (25), and the pump aggregate (1) is connected to the pipe (9) through a pressure stub (32) and a one-way valve (33).
Any of the layouts according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a spare network power source (38) is also connected to the electric motor (4).
Any of the layouts according to claims 1 to 5, characterized in that a launcher (31) and the pump unit (2) containing an electric motor (4) is connected to the pressure regulator (6) in order to extinguish the fire and to maintain the water pressure measured by the pressure meter (23, 24).
Procedure for applying the device according to claim 1, characterized in that, in order to protect the protected surface (35) by extinguishing the fire (19), the pressure of the water in the pipe (9) is kept between 40 and 250 bar, and a pressure regulator (6) is used to achieve this level, if the signal of the pressure meter (23) measuring the minimum operating pressure is below 40 bar, and the pump aggregate (1) is turned on and/or the frequency of the electric motor (4) is increased and/or another pump aggregate (1) is placed into operation through the integrated switch (31) and under the control of the integrated extinguishing control mechanism (22), while, if the signal of the pressure meter (24) measuring the maximum operating pressure is above 250 bar, the frequency of the electric motor (4) is reduced and/or the pump aggregate (1) is switched off through the integrated switch (31).
The procedure according to claim 6, characterized in that in case of a fire (19), the fire detector (11) induces a signal and the pump unit (2) is placed into operation using the battery (5), and then the input frequency of the asynchronous electric motor (4) is raised by the frequency changer (7) to the level of the network frequency, and then the frequency of the other electric motors (4) is set to the same frequency period as the sequencer (28) located in the integrated extinguishing control mechanism (22), while the electric motor (4) running the pump unit (2) is operated at nominal asynchronous speed, and then the switch to the network power source (30) operated mode is made by the switch (29), so the battery (5) operated mode of the frequency changer (7) is switched to network power source (30) mode.
Any of the procedures according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that if the fire detector (11) detects fire (19), the high-pressure mist extinguisher (3) is placed into operation automatically, and fire (19) extinguishing is started by the water under 40 to 250 bar pressure through the closed sprinklers (12), after they are opened by the heat, and the flooding valve (25) is opened to prevent the fire (19) from spreading, thereby placing into operation the open sprinklers (8) as well.
Any of the procedures according to claims 6 to 8, characterized in that in case of network power outage, a switch is made to spare network power source (38) or battery (5) mode.
Any of the procedures according to claims 6 to 9, characterized in that in case of an indoor fire (19) in the extinguishing zone (14) protected by closed sprinklers (12), fire (19) extinguishing is started automatically through the closed sprinklers (12), while the pressure meter (23) detects the pressure drop in the pipe (9) and sends a signal to the pressure regulator (6), thereby the integrated extinguishing control mechanism (22) places into operation one or more pump units (2) of the high-pressure mist extinguisher (3), so water is moved from the water tank (39) to the closed sprinkler (12) above the extinguishing zone (14) and fire (19) extinguishing is started, while if the fire (19) spreads to other extinguishing zone (18), other closed sprinklers (12) are opened by the heat and prevent the fire (19) from spreading, and other pump units (2) are placed into operation until the operating pressure is stabilized and the entire extinguishing zone (34) is protected against the fire.
Any of the procedures according to claims 6 to 10, characterized in that fire (19) is detected by the fire detector (11) in the extinguishing zone (13) protected by open sprinklers (8), and the high-pressure mist extinguisher (3) is placed into operation, so that the flooding valve (25) is opened and water is moved from the water tank (39) to the opened sprinkler (8) above the extinguishing zone (34) and fire (19) extinguishing is started.