Experimental Assessment of the Acoustic Performance of Nozzles Designed for Clean Agent Fire Suppression
Source abstract
Abstract
Discharge through nozzles used in gas-based fire protection of data centers may generate noise that causes the performance of hard drives to decay considerably; silent nozzles are employed to limit this harmful effect. This work focuses on proposing an experimental methodology to assess the impact of sound emitted by gaseous jets by comparing various nozzles under several operating conditions, together with relating that impact to design parameters. A setup was developed and repeatability of the experiments was evaluated; standard and silent nozzles were tested regarding the discharge of inert gases and halocarbon compounds. The ability of silent nozzles to contain the emitted noise—generally below the 110 dB reference threshold—was proven effective; a relationship between Reynolds number and peak noise level is suggested to support the reported increase in noise maxima as released flow rate increases. Hard drives with lower speed were the most affected. Spectral analysis was conducted, with sound at the higher frequency range causing performance decay even if lower than the acknowledged threshold. Independence of emitted noise from the selected clean agent was also observed in terms of released volumetric flow rate, yet the denser the fluid, the lower the generated noise under the same released mass flow rate.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Fire dynamics and safety research · Wind and Air Flow Studies · Aerodynamics and Acoustics in Jet Flows
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Dipartimento di Scienze e Metodi dell’Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy
Bettati Antincendio S.r.l., 42124 Reggio Emilia, Italy
Centro Interdipartimentale per la Ricerca InterMech—MO.RE., 41125 Modena, Italy
Funding
Regione Emilia-Romagna, Italy
References (32)
Show source-provided references
1. DiNenno, P.J., Drysdale, D., Beyler, C.L., Walton, W.D., Custer, R.L.P., Hall, J.R., and Watts, J.M. (2002). Halon design calculations. SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, National Fire Protection Association. Section 4, Chapters 4–6.
2. DiNenno, P.J., Drysdale, D., Beyler, C.L., Walton, W.D., Custer, R.L.P., Hall, J.R., and Watts, J.M. (2002). Halon replacement clean agent total flooding systems. SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, National Fire Protection Association. Section 4, Chapters 4–7.
3. Kim, Y.-H., Lee, M., Hwang, I.-J., and Kim, Y.-J. (2019). Noise reduction of an extinguishing nozzle using the Response Surface Method. Energies, 12.10.3390/en12224346 ↗
4. Mann, M.T., and Coll, M. (2010). Potential Problems with Computer Hard Disks When Fire Extinguishing Systems Are Released, Siemens Switzerland.
5. Aerodynamic noise—A review of the contributions to jet noise research at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield 1949-1961 (together with some recent conclusions)10.1017/S0001924000020510 ↗
6. Shock associated noise of supersonic jets from convergent-divergent nozzles10.1016/0022-460X(82)90244-9 ↗
7. Influence of nozzle geometry on the noise of high-speed jets10.2514/2.560 ↗
8. Performance of hard disk drives in high noise environments10.3397/1/376555 ↗
9. Green, K., Nelson, D., Pai, N., and Nickerson, M. (2011, January 4–7). Hard drive performance degradation due to high level noise in data centers. Proceedings of the 40th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering—Inter-Noise, Osaka, Japan.
10. Tonal noise sensitivity in hard drives10.1121/1.4867335 ↗
11. Daigle, B. (2021). Data Centers around the World: A Quick Look.
12. Loureiro, M.A., Elder, A., and Ahmadzadegan, A. (2017, January 12–14). Acoustic nozzle design for fire protection application. Proceedings of the 2017 Suppression, Detection, and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 2017) and 16th International Conference on Fire Detection (AUBE’17), College Park, MD, USA.
13. Influence of the nozzle contraction angles of gaseous extinguishing systems on discharge noise10.7731/KIFSE.2019.33.4.077 ↗
14. Modelling of noise reduction for datacentre buildings fire protection with inert gas systems10.1051/matecconf/201929012006 ↗
15. Koushik, S., McCormick, D., Cao, C., and Corn, M. (2017, January 12–14). Acoustic impact of fire suppression nozzles. Proceedings of the 2017 Suppression, Detection, and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 2017) and 16th International Conference on Fire Detection (AUBE’17), College Park, MD, USA.
16. (2020). Standard for the Fire Protection of Information Technology Equipment (Standard No. NFPA 75).
17. (2016). Silence Is Golden—Maintaining the Integrity of HDD’s in a Noisy Situation, Fire Eater.
18. (2018). Effect of Sound Waves on Data Storage Devices, Fire Suppression Systems Association.
19. Sandahl, D., Elder, A., and Barnard, A. (2018). Impact of Sound on Computer Hard Disk Drives and Risk Mitigation Measures, Johnson Controls. Form no. T-2016367-01.
20. (2022). Silent Extinguishing, Siemens Switzerland.
21. Pressure wave behaviour and leak detection in pipelines10.1016/0098-1354(96)00091-9 ↗
22. Sound propagation from a point source over extended-reaction ground10.1121/1.423307 ↗
23. Coleman, H.W., and Steele, W.G. (1999). Experimentation and Uncertainty Analysis for Engineers, Wiley.
24. Perry, R.H., and Green, D.W. (1997). Fluid and particle dynamics. Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook, McGraw-Hill. Section 6.
25. (2022, August 24). CoolProp. Available online: http://www.coolprop.org/.
26. Suppression effectiveness of water-mist sprays on accelerated wood-crib fires10.1016/j.firesaf.2014.08.012 ↗
27. Full-scale experiments of fire control and suppression in enclosed car parks: A comparison between sprinkler and water-mist systems10.1007/s10694-016-0569-3 ↗
28. Smart catalyst deposition by 3D printing for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell manufacturing10.1016/j.renene.2020.08.064 ↗
29. Reynolds number influence on statistical behaviors of turbulence in a circular free jet10.1063/1.4811403 ↗
30. White, F.M. (2006). Viscous Fluid Flow, McGraw-Hill.
31. Dutta, T. (2017). Performance of Hard Disk Drives in High Noise Environments. [Master’s Thesis, Michigan Technological University].10.3397/1/376555 ↗
32. Thongchom, C., Jearsiripongkul, T., Refahati, N., Roudgar Saffari, P., Roodgar Saffari, P., Sirimontree, S., and Keawsawasvong, S. (2022). Sound transmission loss of a honeycomb sandwich cylindrical shell with functionally graded porous layers. Buildings, 12.10.1038/s41598-022-06905-1 ↗