System and method for evaluation of fluid flow in a piping system
First Claim
1. A process of installing a dry pipe sprinkler system for a type of fire hazard, the process comprising:
- determining a transit time for an actuation of a dry pipe valve and delivery of liquid at a sprinkler head in a model of a dry pipe sprinkler system, the transit time being determined as a function of the type of fire hazard such that the transit time is less than a predetermined value; and
constructing a dry pipe fire sprinkler system based on the model of the dry pipe sprinkler system without physical verification of the transit time.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method to model a complex system of pipes. The model takes into account the physical processes in a tree-type piping system and provides for an accurate modeling of a real world tree-type piping system. In a preferred embodiment, a computer program is provided for analyzing models of dry pipe systems. The computer program includes a user interface and a computational engine. The user interface allows a model of a dry pipe system to be defined and the computational engine determines a liquid flow time through the model of the dry pipe system. The computational engine provides a verification of the liquid flow time in a model of a referential dry pipe system within 20% of an actual liquid flow time in the referential dry pipe system.
35 Citations
43 Claims
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1. A process of installing a dry pipe sprinkler system for a type of fire hazard, the process comprising:
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determining a transit time for an actuation of a dry pipe valve and delivery of liquid at a sprinkler head in a model of a dry pipe sprinkler system, the transit time being determined as a function of the type of fire hazard such that the transit time is less than a predetermined value; and constructing a dry pipe fire sprinkler system based on the model of the dry pipe sprinkler system without physical verification of the transit time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 20, 25, 26, 30, 31, 32)
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15. A process of installing a dry pipe sprinkler system for a type of fire hazard, the process comprising:
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determining a time for delivery of liquid to at least two open sprinklers in a model dry pipe sprinkler system, the time being determined as a function of the type of fire hazard such that the time is less than a predetermined value, the model system including a network of pipes, a dry pipe valve and a plurality of sprinklers having a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers spaced throughout the network, the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers including the at least two open sprinklers; and constructing a dry pipe fire sprinkler system based on the model system. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 19, 23, 33)
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21. A process of installing a dry pipe sprinkler system for a type of fire hazard, the process comprising:
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determining a time for a delivery of liquid in a model dry pipe sprinkler system, the time being determined as a function of the type of fire hazard such that the time is less than a predetermined value, the model including; a liquid source defined by at least one of a flow and pressure; a tree network of pipes for coupling to the liquid source, the network having an initial gas pressure and at least one of a feed main, a cross main, a riser nipple, a branch line, a drop and a sprig, the network further being defined by at least one of a;
pipe schedule, size, internal diameter, Hazen Williams C-Factor, absolute roughness, length, fittings, equivalent length, and total length;an automatic control valve located between the liquid source and the network, the control valve being defined by a trip ratio; a plurality of sprinklers spaced throughout the network, the plurality of sprinklers including a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve, each of the plurality of sprinklers being defined by at least one of a;
coverage area, K-factor, orifice diameter, minimum operating pressure, orientation, and elevation, the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers including a number of open sprinklers of no more than four open sprinklers, each of the open sprinklers being defined by an operating time, the determined time being the time for delivery of liquid to each of the open sprinklers;
the process further including;constructing a dry pipe fire sprinkler system based on the model system. - View Dependent Claims (24, 27, 28, 29)
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22. A process of installing a dry pipe sprinkler system for a type of fire hazard, the process comprising:
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determining a time for a delivery of liquid in a model dry pipe sprinkler system as a function of the type of fire hazard with a computer program such that the time is less than a predetermined value, wherein the computer program when determining a transit time for at least one pipe topology, the computer program determines the transit time for the at least one topology with a percent deviation of less than 20% from an experimentally determined transit time for the at least one topology, the model system including; a liquid source; a tree network of pipes for coupling to the liquid source; an automatic control valve located between the liquid source and the network; a plurality of sprinklers spaced throughout the network, the plurality of sprinklers including a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve, the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers including a number of open sprinklers of no more than four open sprinklers, the time in the model system being the time for delivery of liquid to each of the open sprinklers;
the process further including;constructing a dry pipe fire sprinkler system based on the model system. - View Dependent Claims (43)
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34. A dry pipe system installation comprising:
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a liquid source; an automatic control valve to control a flow of liquid from the source; a plurality of sprinklers; and a plurality of pipe members defining a tree network coupling the plurality of sprinklers to the control valve, the network having an initial gas pressure and a capacity of greater than 750 gallons, the network including a feed main, a cross main, a plurality of branch lines, the plurality of sprinklers being spaced along the plurality of branch lines so as to define a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers, wherein the plurality of pipe members are installed so as to define a total pipe length, an elevation and a pressure loss for each of the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve such that, when there are no more than four open hydraulically remote sprinklers to actuate the control valve, the system substantially conforms to a time based response characteristic in a model of the liquid source, the control valve, the plurality of sprinklers including the open sprinklers and the plurality of pipe members, the model accounting for the initial gas pressure of the network and the total pipe length, the elevation and the pressure loss for each of the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers such that the model further accounts for gas, liquid, gas-liquid in each pipe member, the time based response characteristic including time for liquid delivery to each of the open sprinklers. - View Dependent Claims (39)
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35. A dry pipe system comprising:
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a liquid source; an automatic control valve to control a flow of liquid between the liquid source and a tree network; a plurality of sprinklers; and a plurality of pipe members defining the tree network coupling the plurality of sprinklers to the control valve, the network having an initial gas pressure and a capacity of greater than 750 gallons, the network including a feed main, a cross main, a plurality of branch lines, the plurality of sprinklers being spaced along the plurality of branch lines so as to define a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve, and wherein the plurality of pipe members are installed so as to define a total pipe length, an elevation and a pressure loss for each of the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve such that, when there are no more than four open hydraulically remote sprinklers to actuate the control valve, the system substantially conforms to a time based response characteristic in a model of the liquid source, the control valve, the plurality of sprinklers including the open sprinklers and the plurality of pipe members, the time based response characteristic in the model being defined by an approach that when modeling at least one pipe topology, the approach determines a transit time of the at least one topology with a percent deviation of less than 20% from an experimentally determined transit time for the at least one topology.
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36. A dry pipe system installation comprising:
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a liquid source; an automatic control valve to control a flow of liquid from the source; a plurality of sprinklers; and a plurality of pipe members defining a tree network coupling the plurality of sprinklers to the control valve, the network having an initial gas pressure and a capacity of greater than 750 gallons, the network including a feed main, a cross main, a plurality of branch lines, the plurality of sprinklers being spaced along the plurality of branch lines so as to define a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers, wherein the plurality of pipe members are installed so as to define a total pipe length, an elevation and a pressure loss for each of the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve such that, when there are no more than four open hydraulically remote sprinklers to actuate the control valve, the system substantially conforms to a time based response characteristic in a model of the liquid source, the control valve, the plurality of sprinklers including the open sprinklers and the plurality of pipe members, the model accounting for the initial gas pressure of the network and the total pipe length, the elevation and the pressure loss for each of the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers, the time based response characteristic including the time for liquid delivery to each of the open sprinklers.
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37. A dry pipe system installation comprising:
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a liquid source; an automatic control valve to control a flow of liquid from the source; a plurality of sprinklers; and a plurality of pipe members defining a tree network coupling the plurality of sprinklers to the control valve, the network having an initial gas pressure and a capacity of greater than 750 gallons, the network including a feed main, a cross main, a plurality of branch lines, the plurality of sprinklers being spaced along the plurality of branch lines so as to define a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers, wherein the plurality of pipe members are installed so as to define a total pipe length, an elevation and a pressure loss for each of the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve such that, when there are no more than four open hydraulically remote sprinklers to actuate the control valve, the system substantially conforms to a time based response characteristic in a model of the liquid source, the control valve, the plurality of sprinklers including the open sprinklers and the plurality of pipe members, the model providing a sequence of operation for the open sprinklers and accounting for the initial gas pressure of the network and the total pipe length, the elevation and the pressure loss for each of the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers such that the model further accounts for the gas, liquid, liquid-gas in each of the pipes of the network over the sequence of operation of the four open sprinklers, the time based response characteristic including time for liquid delivery to the four open sprinklers.
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38. A dry pipe system design for protection of any one of residential, high-piled storage, extra hazard, ordinary hazard, and light hazard application, the system design comprising:
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a liquid source defined by a plurality of pressure-flow curves; a tree network for coupling to the liquid source, the network being defined by a plurality of pipe members that includes at least one of a feed main, a cross main, a riser nipple, a branch line, a drop and a sprig, the tree network having an initial gas pressure further including at least one of a specified;
pipe schedule, size, internal diameter, Hazen Williams C-Factor, absolute roughness, length, fittings, equivalent length, and total length;an automatic control valve located between the liquid source and the network having at least one of a trip ratio and trip pressure; a plurality of sprinklers for installation throughout the network, the plurality of sprinklers including a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers, each sprinkler being defined by at least one of a;
coverage area, K-factor, orifice diameter, minimum operating pressure, orientation, and elevation, the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers having a number of open sprinklers of no more than four sprinklers, the design including operating times for each of the open sprinklers so as to define a sequential liquid delivery for the open sprinklers;
the design further including;at least one desired time based response characteristic based upon the plurality of pressure-flow curves of the liquid source; and a determined time based response characteristic that conforms with the at least one desired transit time based response characteristic, the determined time based response characteristic being determined by a transient model of the system design to account for the sequential liquid delivery to each of the open sprinklers and the gas, liquid, and gas-liquid in each of the pipe members.
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40. A process of installing a dry pipe sprinkler system, the process comprising:
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modeling the dry pipe sprinkler system to include; a liquid source defined by at least one of a flow and a pressure; a tree network coupled to the liquid source, the network having an initial gas pressure and including at least one of a feed main, a cross main, a riser nipple, a branch line, a drop and a sprig and further defined by at least one of a;
pipe schedule, size, internal diameter, Hazen Williams C-Factor, absolute roughness, length, fittings, equivalent length, and total length;an automatic control valve located between the liquid source and the network, the control valve having a trip ratio; a plurality of sprinklers spaced throughout the network, the plurality of sprinklers including a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve, each of the plurality of sprinklers being defined by at least one of a;
coverage area, K-factor, orifice diameter, minimum operating pressure, orientation, and elevation, the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers including a number of open sprinklers of no more than four open sprinklers, each of the open sprinklers being defined by an operating time; anda model time for liquid delivery from the automatic control valve to the hydraulically remote sprinklers, the model time being a function of at least one of the initial gas pressure in the network and the operating times of the open sprinklers; and installing the dry pipe sprinkler system based on the model with a time for liquid delivery that substantially conforms to the model time for liquid delivery.
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41. A process of providing a dry pipe sprinkler system, the process comprising:
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identifying a desired time for liquid delivery; building a model dry pipe sprinkler system to include; a liquid source; a tree network for coupling to the liquid source having an initial gas pressure, the network including at least one of a feed main, a cross main, a riser nipple, a branch line, a drop and a sprig; an automatic control valve located between the liquid source; a plurality of sprinklers spaced throughout the network including a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers from the control valve, the minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers including a number of open sprinklers of no more than four open sprinklers, each of the open sprinklers being defined by an operating time; determining a time for liquid delivery to the open sprinklers in the model system as a function of the initial gas pressure and the operating times of the open sprinklers; modifying the model such that the determined time substantially conforms to the desired time; and providing a dry pipe sprinkler installation that conforms to the model.
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42. A process of providing a dry pipe sprinkler system, comprising:
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defining physical attributes of a model dry pipe sprinkler system including defining; at least one of a flow and a pressure of a liquid source; at least one of an initial gas pressure, pipe schedule, size, internal diameter, Hazen Williams C-Factor, absolute roughness, length, fittings, equivalent length, and total length of a tree network of pipes; a trip ratio of an automatic control valve; at least one of a K-factor, orifice diameter, minimum operating pressure, orientation, and elevation of a plurality of sprinklers including a minimum number of hydraulically remote sprinklers having no more than four open sprinklers, determining a time for liquid delivery to the open sprinklers in the model system using a transient analysis-that determines a transit time of at least one topology with a percent deviation of less than 20% from an experimentally determined transit time for the at least one topology, the process further including; providing a dry pipe sprinkler installation having the physical attributes and the determined transit time.
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Specification