ABSTRACT
An area of major concern for today's safety professional is the prevention of fires and the protection of personnel and property from the effects of fires. This chapter discusses three primary methods of heat transfer, which includes radiation, convection, and conduction. Radiation heat is the amount of thermal radiation between two or more objects. Combustion is a chemical reaction that occurs between a fuel and an oxidizing agent that produces energy, usually in the form of heat and light. There are four components that are necessary to sustain combustion. The four components include fuel, oxygen, heat, and a chain reaction. There are several categories of sprinkler systems that may include dry pipe, wet pipe, deluge, combined dry pipe and preaction, and sprinklers that are designed for limited water supply systems. A fire sprinkler system consists of a water supply that provides adequate pressure and flow rate to a water distribution piping system, which has sprinkler heads attached.
