Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
Let us go down memory lane for a bit. I remember driving in my father’s 1962 Buick Skylark, his 1969 Volkswagen Beetle, and his 1974 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon (yes, it had the plastic wood-grain siding). The first car I drove was the station wagon. I looked so cool as a 16-year-old teenager driving Dad’s wagon. Wow, times have changed, and over my 60 years, the automobile has changed substantially. Usually, change is for the good, but sometimes we look back and say, “What were they thinking?” Just look at the AMC Pacer, the Chevrolet Vega, the Ford Pinto, and the Plymouth Prowler.
Just like everything else, storage warehouses have evolved over the years. Modern warehouses are being designed to maximize every cubic foot of space while minimizing the labor effort needed to move products. The goal is to reduce cost and maximize efficiency. Our sprinkler protection schemes have also had to change because today’s and tomorrow’s storage arrangements will push the sprinkler protection to its limits. The days of using control mode density/area (CMDA), control mode specific application (CMSA), and early suppression fast-response (ESFR) sprinkler designs directly out of NFPA 13 are becoming limited. The NFPA standard development process is slow to keep up with technology changes, and the adoption by the local government agencies can take several more years. This leads to inadequate design criteria for modern technology storage warehouses.
My next statement might not be well received. If you are not a design professional with experience in sprinkler protection criteria, do not touch proving the criteria for these systems. Follow the Society of Fire Protection Engineers’ (SFPE) Position Statement 2020-1, The Engineer and the Engineering Technician Designing Fire Protection Systems.
Section 4.2 of NFPA 13 clearly states this is the responsibility of the owner or their designated representative, which should be the design professional in a storage warehouse design. AFSA and many other organizations, including NICET, have endorsed the SFPE Position Statement.
The selection of design criteria is difficult at best. Specifically determining the owner’s storage arrangement, including products, packaging, type of pallet, rack type, height of the building, height of storage, and environmental factors are just some of the variables. In many instances, changing one variable could change the design criteria. I have been involved in many situations where the client changed variables during the design phase without informing the others on the design team.
This issue of Sprinkler Age includes two articles discussing storage appliances. The cold storage article describes the challenges of and a method to protect these storage arrangements. The other article discusses two of the modern storage challenges our industry is facing. The NFPA Fire Protection Research Foundation has had several projects looking at the issues, and the research will continue. Some owners and insurers, along with sprinkler manufacturers, have been at the testing labs trying to find the best solutions.
Just like every other challenge our industry faces, we will figure this out. However, in the meantime, make sure a design professional is providing the design criteria. As in medicine, engineering involves professional practice and judgment. It is not an exact science where everything is known. Sometimes, engineers need to base guidance on the best available data at the time, their experience, and judgment. Even then, something could go wrong. We do not want to see sprinkler system failures.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John August Denhardt, P.E., ET, CWBSP, FSFPE, is the vice president of engineering and technical services for the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA). He is responsible for strengthening AFSA’s engineering and technical approaches to meeting member, industry, and operational priorities, with an emphasis on service, quality, and integrity. Denhardt is a registered professional engineer (P.E.) in the District of Columbia and the states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He is NICET Level III certified in water-based systems layout, NICET Level III certified in inspection and testing of water-based systems, and a certified water-based system professional through NFPA. Denhardt is a member of the NFPA 13 technical committee on sprinkler system discharge criteria, a fellow in the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), a member of the SFPE Board of Directors, a member of the Board of Trustees for NFPA’s Fire Protection Research Foundation and sits on the University of Maryland Department of Fire Protection Engineering’s Board of Visitors. A native of Maryland, Denhardt holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland College Park in fire protection engineering. Prior to this role, Denhardt was employed by Strickland Fire Protection in Forestville, Maryland, since 1994, overseeing large-scale projects and assisting with design and installation technical issues.