XL Global Asset Protection Services, LLC, in conjunction with
Underwriters Laboratories, Inc., recently unveiled research on water dynamics
and fire sprinkler performance that could significantly improve the insurance
industry’s fire safety and fire modeling capabilities. The research was
presented at the Society for Fire Protection Engineers’ Annual Engineering
Technology Conference, held Oct. 12-17 in Charlotte, NC.
XL Global Asset Protection Services, LLC (XL GAPS), in conjunction with
Underwriters Laboratories, Inc., recently unveiled research on water dynamics
and fire sprinkler performance that could significantly improve the insurance
industry’s fire safety and fire modeling capabilities. The research was
presented at the Society for Fire Protection Engineers’ Annual Engineering
Technology Conference, held Oct. 12-17 in Charlotte, NC.
According to Paul Hart, regional field leader for XL GAPS, “In
order to really understand what happens in a fire, we need to improve on our
knowledge of how water is discharged from sprinklers, how it travels through
space and then how it interacts with the burning object. This data has
given us a better understanding of the way that water travels to and interacts
with fire under different conditions. This knowledge can help improve the
reliability of fire modeling programs like the Fire Dynamics Simulator.”
Hart joined Mahmood Tabaddor, PhD, of Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.
to present XL GAPS’ research at the SFPE conference.
According to Hart: “While the research helps advance the science
involved in fire safety, it also helps us serve our clients better and more
accurately determine the necessity and extent of conducting fire tests,
especially as our clients explore new building construction and design
techniques such as environmentally-friendly design or green building. Improved
models will give us a reasonable degree of confidence to help guide our testing
efforts, including in circumstances that have never been tested before.”
XL GAPS’ research focused on examining the Actual Delivered Density
(ADD) of water as it is emitted from sprinklers. This data will be used to
improve the ability of modeling programs to simulate fire sprinklers’ discharge
in characterizing what could happen in different fire scenarios. Fire modeling and fire testing are techniques
used to predict fire dynamics, the effectiveness of sprinklers, and other fire
safety measures. They are also used to study the way that fires interact with
certain materials and within specific infrastructure.
XL GAPS, part of the XL Capital group of companies,
provides property loss prevention consulting to XL Insurance and other
companies and offers individually tailored solutions to protect and enhance
property, production, and profit.