How does friction loss affect automatic sprinkler systems as it pertains to structure fires?

Chapter 5 discusses water supply for commercial sprinkler systems. Velocity is simply the speed at what water moves through the pipe. As water travels through the sprinkler pipe the pressure gradually decreases. The faster the water moves through a sprinkler pipe, the higher the friction loss. Industry standards have established 5 ft/s (1,5m/s) as an acceptable maximum velocity. Damaging surge pressures and rapidly increasing friction loss are two problems encountered when velocities exceed 5 feet per second (ft/s) – (1,5 m/s). To help determine what flow is safe to design with, there are pipe flow charts for various types of pipes in numerous sizes. Usually 1/2″ – 6″.

What all this means is that it is critical to be aware of some of these basic principles when designing or changing aspects of your sprinkler system. The most common problem I encounter when working on an existing sprinkler system is that the designer and/or the installer has not used these design principles. As an example, the last system I worked on had a 3/4″ water meter feeding the system, the pipe size was 3/4″ PVC Schedule 40, and the water pressure was 75 psi. The installer had put 10 sprinkler heads on one circuit and the homeowners were unhappy with how the heads were working and the coverage the heads were providing. The problem here was the heads were trying to use 20 gallons per minute and the sprinkler system could only safely deliver around 12 gallons per minute. To solve this design problem often times is tricky and potentially expensive.

How does friction loss affect automatic sprinkler systems as it pertains to structure fires?

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