ABSTRACT
Much of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) #13, the Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems, elicits installation requirements for the protection of stored commodities. Particularly in Chapters 12 through 20, the standard tells the reader the exact criteria by which to design a sprinkler system, and those criteria are based on the type of storage, storage height, and type of commodity being stored. The minimum installation requirements are based on years of extensive large-scale fire testing, and as a result everyone concerned can realize a sense of confidence that the installed sprinkler system will reasonably protect warehouse property against a potential fire. Because as sprinklered storage testing cannot realistically be replicated using computerized fire models, real data has had to be derived from tests that are representative of actual conditions. Thus, the magnitude of fire growth for various storage situations can be researched and quantified academically in conjunction with the fire suppression capabilities of differing levels of fire sprinkler protection.
