ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: PREDICTING SMOKE DETECTOR RESPONSE USING A QUANTITATIVE SALT-WATER MODELING TECHNIQUE

Title of Thesis: PREDICTING SMOKE DETECTOR RESPONSE USING A QUANTITATIVE SALT-WATER MODELING TECHNIQUE Sean Phillip Jankiewicz, Master of Sciences, 2004 Thesis Directed By: Professor André W. Marshall Department of Fire Protection Engineering This investigation provides a detailed analysis of the hydraulic analogue technique used as a predictive tool for understanding smoke detector response within a complex enclosure. There currently exists no collectively accepted method for predicting the response of smoke detectors; one of the most important elements in life safety. A quantitative technique has been developed using salt-water modeling and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) diagnostics. The non-intrusive diagnostic technique is used to temporally and spatially characterize the dispersion of a buoyant plume within a 1/7 scale room-corridor-room enclosure. This configuration is geometrically similar to a fullscale fire test facility, where local conditions were characterized near five ionization type smoke detectors placed throughout the enclosure. The full-scale fire and salt-water model results were scaled using the fundamental equations that govern dispersion. An evaluation of the local conditions and dispersive event times for both systems was used to formulate a preliminary predictive detector response model for use with the hydraulic analogue. PREDICTING SMOKE DETECTOR RESPONSE USING A QUANTITATIVE SALT-WATER MODELING TECHNIQUE by Sean Phillip Jankiewicz Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science 2004 Advisory Committee: Professor André W. Marshall, Chair Professor Richard J. Roby Professor James G. Quintiere Professor Arnaud Trouvé