Fire Protection At High Ceiling Clearance Facilities

The number of the buildings with a high clearance between the floor and the ceiling such as airport terminals, shopping malls, atria, movie studios, theaters, convention halls, and hotel lobbies has been steadily increasing in recent years. These structures pose a unique challenge to fire safety engineers and building code officials alike because of their high clearances between the floor and the ceiling. One of the most practical yet most reliable protection schemes is installing automatic fire sprinklers on the ceiling. Two critical issues regarding the sprinkler operation at high ceiling clearance facilities are: (1) whether the sprinklers installed on such a high ceiling would operate when there is fire, and (2) what are the proper sprinkler parameters that would effectively control fire once the system activates? Utilizing the test data collected through a number of fire tests in a high ceiling clearance facility, this paper will discuss the two issues.