MECH3430

Fire Protection
in Buildings
Dr. Benjamin P.L. Ho
Department of Mechanical Engineering
(contact: benjamin.ho@hku.hk)
Automatic Fire Alarm
System

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 Contents

• Legislative requirements
• Automatic Fire Alarm system
• Automatic fire detection system and detectors

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Legislative Requirements

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 COP FSI (April 2012)
• 5.11 Fire Alarm System
• Any manually operated system designed
to give warning of fire
• 5.12 Fire Control Centre
• A compartment (situated at street level
having direct access to open air and
vehicular approach) containing
annunciator boards, controls, terminals,
etc. of the fire protection and life safety
systems within that building/complex
• 5.13 Fire Detection System
• Any system designed to detect
automatically the presence of smoke,
heat, combustion products or flame and
give warning of same.
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 5.11 Fire Alarm Systems
• deals only with manual operated alarm points
• usually about Break Glass Units (BGU) (old name) /
Manual Fire Alarm Call Points (more current name)
• installed as an integral part of automatic fire detection
system
• manual actuating points shall be provided at each hose
reel point and, in particular, adjacent to all storey exits
within a distance of not more than 2 m and adjacent to
all staircase exits to open air on ground storey or place
of ultimate safety (Section 5.11 CoP FSI)
• linked to the Fire Services Communication Centre by
direct line via the Automatic Fire Alarm (AFA)
System
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• design usually in conjunction with hose reel system
• 1 hose reel, 1 manual alarm call point, 1 alarm bell, 1
visual alarm signal, 1 indicator for pump failure
• location of alarm bell should generate a sound level of
65dB (75dB for sleeping risk)
• This requirement is sometimes ignored by designers
• Visual Fire Alarm (VFA) shall be in form
of red flashing light
• Minimum 15 candela (a unit of luminance)
• Visible to normal eyesight in all areas required to be
protected
• Each compartment shall be provided with at least one VFA
point and the maximum distance < 60m
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 5.12 Fire Control Centre
• normally at ground floor level on the
main face of a building, preferably
adjacent to main entrance (EVA)
• Minimum FRR = 1 hour
• continuously manned by trained personnel / promptly
attended by trained personnel in case of emergency
(Is that true???)
• Local termination/repeaters of fire protection and life
safety systems will be installed as appropriate
(usually called repeating panels which ‘repeats’ what
is displayed in the main fire alarm panel)
• Electrical supply will be from the essential supplies
circuit + battery power
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 5.13 Fire Detection System
• Installed in accordance with BS5839: Part 1 (FSD
circular letter 2009/01)
• BS 5839-1:2002 + A2:2008

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 5.13 Fire Detection System
• Detection heads may be of heat detecting type or
smoke detecting type and heads of both types may
be installed within the same system

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Automatic Fire Alarm (AFA)
System

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 Circuitry of AFA System
• Conventional System (older kinds of system)
• 4 wire system (Class A)
• 2 wire system (Class B)
• Addressable System (currently adopted in most
new or rennovated buildings)

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 Conventional System
• whole building divided into zones and wiring in a
particular zone related to the particular fire compartment
• fire signal in one particular zone will give an alarm signal
at the control panel which is indicative of that particular
zone
• exact detector that is actuated in that zone cannot be
identified
Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4

S S S H H H

Hard wire Hard wire Hard wire Hard wire

AFA Panel 13
• Class A and Class B according to NFPA
• Class A is a 4 wire system wiring, which is fully
monitored and will continue to work if there is
wiring break, but it will show only one fault at one
time
• Class B is a 2 wire system wiring, which is
permanently energised, if there is wire break,
alarm will be activated, but short circuit will not
activate the system

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 Addressable System
• microprocessor based
• system controlled by programming
• Raising of fire alarm can be programmed into zones
• This makes possible partial evacuation, e.g. two floor up and one floor below
• detectors become individual sensor giving precise location of fire
signal in addition to zoning indication
• detectors connected in ‘loops’
• usually houses 99 ‘devices’ (detectors, alarm points, etc) per loop
• actual no. of detectors governed by power consumption in one loop
Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4

S S S H H H
01 02 03 04 05 06

Hard wire
AFA Panel 15
• non-addressable units wired through monitoring module
to identify the address of the alarm
• actuation equipment such as alarm and actuator wired by
control module
• usually by multiplexing cables, twisted pairs, co-axial
cables, etc.
• scanning rate of 50 cycles / second
• system can be structured in satellite form
• more flexible
• price dropped (more cost effective)
• Have an understanding of the AFA schematic line diagram
of Yam Pak Building
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 Signals from Fire Detection System
• alarm signal
• warning of fire danger that requires immediate action
• alarm sounded, A/V supervisory signal, fire signal activated
• supervisory signal
• action required in connection with the operation other fire
protection systems
• pre-action sprinkler system, fire shutters, etc.
• issuance of patrol guards
• trouble signal
• fault in a monitored circuit
• e.g. failure of detectors, short or open circuit, power failure
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 Basic Components
• system control unit (fire alarm panel)
• nowadays micro-processor based
• hard wired using twisted or network cables
• addressable (can identify individual detectors)
• analogue (detector sends in condition of environment, not
the state of the detector)
[Not just Alarm / No Alarm (0 and 1) anymore!]
• main power supply
• from utility company
• secondary power supply
• UPS w/ sufficient battery backup
• standby generator
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 Basic Components
• initiating devices to actuate a fire alarm
• detectors, sprinkler flow switches, break glass units
• alarm notification devices
• When there is a fire alarm, what devices are actuated to
alert the people
• alarm bells, yoke alarms, flashing lights, speakers (A/V
advisory)
• remote signal notification
• e.g. Chubb Fire Services Communication Centre
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Automatic Fire Detection
System

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 Automatic Fire Detectors

• Heat Detectors
• Smoke Detectors
• Gas Detectors
• Flame Detectors
• Many other new type of detectors are available in
the market subjected to FSD approval

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 Automatic Fire Detectors
• Design of automatic fire detectors should follow
BS5839-1:2002 + A2:2008
• Quick reference is referred to Section 22 (page 48) of the
standard – Spacing and Siting of Automatic Fire Detectors
(in general only, detail reading is required to properly
locate the detectors)
• Smoke and heat detectors
• 7.5 m for smoke detector
• 5.3 m for heat detector
• Optical beam smoke detectors
• 7.5 m from the nearest point of the optical beam
• Line heat detectors
• 5.3 m from the nearest point on a line heat detector
• Aspirating smoke detection system
• Flame detectors 22
 Heat Detectors
• Lowest false alarm rate
• Slowest in detecting fires
• Best suited for confined space where rapidly
building high-heat output fires are expected
• Good choice for use in places where the ambient
air condition may easily cause smoke detectors to
give false alarms, e.g. humid environment or dusty
environment in plant rooms

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• fixed temperature type
• fusible-element-type

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• continuous line-type

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• bimetallic type

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• rate compensation type

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• rate-of-rise type

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• combination type

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• electronic spot-type (most common nowadays)

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 Smoke Detectors
• Ionisation detectors

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• photoelectric detectors
• light obscuration principle
• beam type
• used in large open areas

• light scattering principle

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• air sampling type detectors
• cloud chamber smoke detection principle
• continuous air-sampling smoke detection (aspirating
smoke detectors)

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 Gas Detectors
• semiconductor principle
• oxidizing gases or reducing gases generate electrical
charges in the semi-conductor

• catalytic element principle

• catalyst accelerates oxidation resulting in a rise in
temperature of the catalyst

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 Flame Detectors
• infrared flame detectors
• filter and lens filters out unwanted wavelengths
• photovoltaic cell picks up the IR energy
• may be in combination with flame flicker in the
frequency range of 5-30 Hz
• sensitive to most hydrocarbon fires

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• ultraviolet flame detectors
• insensitive to sunlight and artificial light due to
sensitivity range absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere
• sensitive to most fires
• arc welding, X-rays, lightning may activate the UV
detectors
• UV absorbing gases may affect the sensitivity

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