Sharyy V. Increasing the fire safety systems effectiveness in warehouses

The dissertation work is devoted to the solution of an actual scientific task - improving the fire safety systems efficiency of in warehouses. Fires at objects of significant material values storage, if not detected in time, have a rapid development and protracted nature, carry a significant danger for service personnel and employees of fire and rescue units and cause significant material losses. Fires at storage objects of material values, despite the presence of fire protection systems, often spread to the entire area of warehouses, and in some places the building. Material losses from such fires, as their statistics show, can amount to tens and hundreds of millions of conditional units. Often, the consequences of fires at warehouse facilities, in addition to material damage, are the death and injury of people, damage to neighboring facilities, as well as significant damage to the environment. To date, insufficient attention has been paid to increasing the efficiency of fire safety systems in warehouses, namely, to the rapid fires detection in such facilities. When designing, an object-oriented flexible approach should be used to determine the number of all elements of fire protection systems, taking into account the probability of each element’s failure-free operation, as well as their required (standardized) number at the protected object. Therefore, the purpose of the work is to reveal the specifics of the factors impact on the occurrence processes, detection and development of warehouse fires based on theoretical and experimental research in the context of improving fire safety systems of such facilities. During the dissertation research, the following were used: a comprehensive research method, which included the analysis and generalization of scientific and technical achievements of the warehouse premises ensuring fire safety modern state; methods of statistical analysis; method of mathematical modeling and theoretical assessment of fire risk for warehouses; full-factor experiment method when planning and processing its results; the Monte Carlo method for finding a solution to the optimization problem of determining the required number of fire protection devices. The most effective ensuring fire safety method at storage facilities is the implementation of fire protection systems which are capable of detecting fire at an early stage, localizing it, immediately notifying staff and visitors of its occurrence, and facilitating the safe people evacuation. Nowadays there is no comprehensive approach to choosing the type and number of fire detectors at different facilities, the existing research results cannot be applied to choose the optimal placement in warehouses. All this allows us to state that it is expedient to conduct a study devoted to the assessment of the factors influence on the fire detection effectiveness of the investigated objects. A mathematical model was further developed, which allows to determine the optimal number of fire-fighting means in warehouse facilities, which are located in closed rooms, taking into account the fire protection systems trouble-free operation. To increase the fire safety level at storage facilities, the process of fire development in the open room volume and with the use of partitions and fire protection curtains was simulated. In closed warehouses, two modes of materials combustion development in the room were considered: with the presence of a sufficient air (oxygen) amount, that is, the fire that occurred is regulated by the fire load; with an insufficient air (oxygen) amount, that is, the fire that has arisen is regulated by ventilation. In a closed room in real conditions the first mode of fire gradually turns into the second, and after reaching the temperature in the room, at which the window panes are destroyed, the gas exchange process becomes two-way and the fire moves to the first mode.