American Fire Sprinkler Association
12750 Merit Dr., Suite 350 Dallas TX 75251
Ph:(214) 349-5965 Fax:(214) 276-0908
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TECHNICAL UPDATE
March 12, 2008
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"We have a solid pile storage facility with overhead doors. Does the
area beneath the doors have to apply the same discharge density as the
ceiling?"
We have reviewed NFPA 13, 2007 edition that you identified as the
applicable standard. Our informal interpretation is that the area
beneath the door does not have to have the same density as the ceiling.
The rest of the building contains solid pile storage to 20 ft. The
floor space of the overhead doors are restricted both by the height of
the door and the use of the door to transfer goods in and out of the
building. This presents a much lower hazard. This is addressed in
8.7.3.1.7 for the occupancy hazard approach (in an otherwise ordinary
hazard facility, consider area beneath door as light hazard). There
is no such guidance for the storage approach. As shown by chapter 13,
storage less than 10 ft (which would be the case beneath the door) is
typically defined as an ordinary hazard. Sidewall sprinklers are
acceptable as defined by 8.4.2(3).
As a side note, you identified that you are using a high temperature,
K-16.8 sprinkler. You can use the lower density for the higher
temperature rating for ordinary temperature rated sprinklers with
K-11.2 and larger (see 12.6.9). This is due to far superior
performance by the larger K-factors.
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Technical Update is prepared by the Technical Services Dept. of the
AFSA: Vice President of Engineering and Technical Services Roland
Huggins, a PE registered in fire protection engineering; Phill Brown,
a NICET IV certified automatic sprinkler technician and NFPA Certified
Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS) and Tom Wellen, a degreed fire
protection engineering technologist. This is provided with the
understanding that the AFSA assumes no liability for this opinion or
actions taken on it and they are not to be considered the official
position of the NFPA or its technical committees.
Copyright (c) 2008, American Fire Sprinkler Association. All Rights
Reserved
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