Preliminary experimental studies on cabin fires

The cabin concept is widely used for fire protection in the retail areas of many big public transport terminals in the Far East However, very little systematic experimental studies were reported to demonstrate the performance of the system. Preliminary experimental studies on performance of full "cabins," with operation of the installed mechanical smoke exhaust and sprinkler system, were carried out. A cabin of length 3.5 m, width 4 m, and height 3 m was constructed with supply air flow rate adjusted by the door size. A smoke exhaust system and sprinkler system were installed. Small fires with lower heat release rates up to 1.3 MW was set up with wood crib. Both normal sprinkler nozzle and water fog nozzle were studied. Seven of the tests carried out will be reported in this article.