(65ak) Analysis of Fire Extinguishing Methods in Engine Control Rooms

The study of electrical fires is a major concern for fire safety in the industry and more particularly for oil industry. In petrochemical facilities, the fire hazard may cause severe consequences on safety functions inside the fire compartment and furthermore may lead to the loss of one or several compartments, as just as structural damage on the facilities. From the OECD Fire Database a majority of the fire ignition is due to electrical sources (close to 50%, with a significant contribution attributed to electrical or electronic cabinets, with an occurrence of more than 10% of all fire events). Because of the above mentioned, it is necessary to implement tools to study these phenomena without using an experimental method. For example, the simulation of the dynamics of combustion and fire spread, allows an estimation of the effects on the structure of the case study preemptively. This project addresses the comparison of different fire protection philosophies in engine control rooms, using Fire Dynamics Simulator as support tool. The project studies three different cases, one of them without a protection system, another a clean agent as extinguishing tool and a final one, which implements an inherently safe design. For the first case study, the obtained data for the room temperature and the heat release ratio indicate a potential risk for the personnel and the equipment of the facility. It is expected that the study of the remaining cases show the significant advantages of each fire extinguishing philosophy.