Sensitivity studies on fire detectors

Experimental studies were performed to assess the sensitivity and response times of four types of fire detectors: ionization smoke, optical smoke, infrared, and rate of heat rise detectors. The detectors were installed in a fire chamber and subjected to five types of fire under a controlled environment. Bigger fires giving a hot gas temperature up to 200°C were used to get higher heat release rates. Correlations between the fire properties and the response times of the detectors to predict the response time for the four types of fire detectors were found using statistical methods.