Suppression Effect of Sprinkler System on Fire Spread in Large Commercial Buildings

Fire disasters occurred in large commercial buildings usually cause heavy casualties and property losses. Many studies on large commercial building fire behaviours put emphasis on simple fire prevention state influenced fire spread. However, in real fire disasters, both sprinkler operation mode and combustible material attributes play important role in affecting fire safety. In the present study, different sprinkler system activation modes under different fire scenarios in large commercial building were numerically investigated by using CFD simulation software FDS. It was found that the sprinkler system could supress fire development at the initial stage because the pyrolysis of combustible materials is inhibited, the process of heat transfer is slowed down, resulting in a prolonged evacuation time in such buildings. It was also found that different combustible materials distribution in markets and combustion rate play a vital role in affecting the safety level of occupants evacuation.