CONDUCTING FIELD TESTS OF FIRE ALARM SYSTEMS WHEN SIMULATING TEST FIRE WITH EVACUATION OF THE CONTROL GROUP

Abstract

Long-term operation of fire alarm systems, even with routine maintenance, often leads to untimely detection of a fire. Due to the possibility of contamination, dust and, as a consequence, a decrease in the sensitivity of smoke fire detectors, their normal operation will be in question. The use of smoke detectors in the process of maintenance that do not simulate the optical density of the environment corresponding to a real fire leads to the fact that in the event of a real fire, the possibility of timely detection of dangerous factors is reduced. The work examines the problem of checking the installed fire alarm system for its effective functioning, as well as the possibility of ensuring safe evacuation when threshold smoke levels are reached. Mathematical modeling of smoke propagation is presented and comparative full-scale tests are carried out. Based on a series of experiments, an effective method has been proposed for testing a fire alarm system while simultaneously conducting exercises for the safe evacuation of personnel at a protected facility under conditions of a real decrease in visibility due to the appearance of smoke from a fire.