Patent Application
20140262359
A variety of sprinkler systems have proven useful for fire protection within buildings. Sprinkler heads are strategically positioned within a building so that they may discharge a fire suppression fluid when needed. Most sprinkler systems have a dedicated pipe network for carrying the fluid, such as water, to the sprinkler heads. Some sprinkler systems operate with relatively high pressures and require appropriately sized piping to withstand the necessary pressures and deliver a sufficient amount of water.
Additionally, the water pressures required by some sprinkler systems cannot be achieved without a supplemental pump or other machinery. This introduces still further costs and renders a sprinkler system undesirably expensive or impractical for many situations.
An exemplary sprinkler system for use within a building includes a plurality of conduits within the building. A plurality of fixtures within the building are coupled with the conduits for providing water from the conduits to at least one individual for personal use. A plurality of sprinkler heads within the building are coupled to the conduits for selectively introducing water from the conduits into at least one portion of the building for fire suppression. A gas source is associated with the sprinkler heads for supplying gas to the sprinkler heads to achieve a fire suppression discharge from the sprinkler heads.
An exemplary method of providing a sprinkler system within a building includes coupling a plurality of sprinkler heads to conduits within the building for selectively introducing water from the conduits into at least one portion of the building for fire suppression. Gas is supplied to the sprinkler heads for achieving a fire suppression discharge from the sprinkler heads. The conduits are also coupled to a plurality of fixtures within the building for providing water from the conduits to at least one individual for personal use.
The various features and advantages of this disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description. The drawings that accompany the detailed description can be briefly described as follows.
In one example, the conduits 26 comprise standard household plumbing tubing such as galvanized pipe, copper tubing or plastic tubing. The water supply 24 provides water within the conduits 26 at a typical domestic water supply pressure, which may be on the order of 40 psi to 80 psi (2800 gram-force/cm2 to 5625 gram-force/cm2).
A plurality of sprinkler heads 40 are coupled to the conduits 26. The sprinkler heads 40 are strategically positioned within the building 22 to provide fire suppression utilizing water from the conduits 26. Coupling the sprinkler heads 40 to the conduits 26 used for personal water supply is a significant departure from systems that require separate, dedicated water pipes for a sprinkler system and from systems that require oversized pipes otherwise required to deliver high water flow required by many traditional sprinklers.
The sprinkler heads 40 can be referred to as twin fluid or dual fluid sprinklers because they utilize more than one fluid to achieve a desired fire suppression discharge. In some examples, one of the fluids comprises water and the other comprises a gas. The illustrated example includes a gas source 42, which may be situated within the building 22 or at a nearby location outside of the building 22.
Gas supply lines 44 couple the gas supply 42 with the sprinkler heads 40 so that a desired fire suppression discharge schematically shown at 46 is provided by the sprinkler heads 40 when the sprinkler system 20 is activated.
In one example, the sprinkler heads 40 comprise effervescent sprinkler heads that utilize effervescent atomization to provide water mist fire suppression discharge. Effervescent sprinkler heads are one example type of twin fluid sprinkler that is useful in an embodiment of this invention. One feature of the illustrated example is that the sprinkler heads 40 can operate based upon normal domestic water supply pressures and can be coupled directly to the conduits 26 used for domestic water supply purposes. There is no requirement for a pump or other device to achieve an elevated water pressure, nor is there any requirement for a separate pipe network to supply water to the sprinkler heads 40. The illustrated example allows for much more economically and easily incorporating a sprinkler system into a variety of buildings, including residential buildings.
The gas source 42 provides pressurized gas to achieve the desired fire suppression discharge from the sprinkler heads 40. The pressure in some examples is only slightly above the pressure of the water in the conduits 26. An example gas pressure is in a range from less than 1 psi (70 gram-force/cm2) above the water pressure to about 5 psi (350 gram-force/cm2) above the water pressure.
The sprinkler heads 40 achieve a desired fire suppression discharge that comprises a water mist. The discharge is achieved using relatively low water and gas pressures.
Effervescent atomization is achieved in the illustrated example as gas, such as air from the gas source 42, is introduced into a bubbler 60. A plurality of bubbler openings 62 allow air bubbles to be introduced into the water within the nozzle body 50 to create a bubbly mixture resulting in effervescent atomization and a water mist fire suppression discharge from the sprinkler head 40. Such an example sprinkler head configuration allows for using low pressure and for coupling the sprinkler heads to the conduits 26 that are used for domestic water supply, for example.
The example of
The disclosed example provides a low pressure, multipurpose system within a building that utilizes the same water conduits for carrying water within the building to a variety of fixtures for personal use and to a plurality of sprinkler heads for fire suppression purposes.
The preceding description is exemplary rather than limiting in nature. Variations and modifications to the disclosed examples may become apparent to those skilled in the art that do not necessarily depart from the essence of this invention. The scope of legal protection given to this invention can only be determined by studying the following claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US2011/056267 | 10/14/2011 | WO | 00 | 4/11/2014 |
