Patent ID: 9355062
Filing Date: 2016-05-31
CPC Classification: A62C,G06F

Claim Text:
1. A method for evaluating a fire suppression system performance, comprising the steps of: (a) measuring near-field characteristics of an initial spray generated by a sprinkler under study equipped with a sprinkler deflector, said characteristics being measured in vicinity of the sprinkler discharge at various operating conditions and different geometries of the sprinkler deflector, said near-field characteristics including 3-dimensional characterization of volume flux distributions, drops' size distributions, and drops' velocity distributions in said initial spray azimuthally correlated with geometric features of said sprinkler deflector; (b) entering said measured characteristics of the initial spray in a computer system configured to process said measured characteristics in accordance to a measurement analysis algorithm, specifying said initial spray by a number of individual drops determined based on the measured characteristics attained in said step (a), wherein said number of drops is generated on a surface of a sphere originated from a center of said sprinkler deflector with a radius equal to an initiation distance for complete spray formation, assigning azimuthal angle ψ, elevation angle θ, dimensionless drop size d, and dimensionless drop velocity V to each of said number of individual drops, and describing the initial spray in terms of the volume probability density as where the azimuthal angle ψ is determined by randomly choosing an outcome space ranging from 0 to 1, and selected according to the cumulative distribution function: where f (c) transforming said 3-dimensional characterization of said initial spray into a compact representation thereof through the steps of: generating analytical functions describing spatial variation of said drops' density, size, and velocity in correspondence to an elevation angle, wherein said analytical functions include Legendre polynomials, Gaussian functions, and Fourier series, each defined through respective coefficients determined by processing said measured near-field characteristics, wherein said respective coefficients provide average values and profile shapes for said measured spray characteristics, for said Legendre polynomials and Gaussian functions, and wherein said respective coefficients are determined from the sprinkler's nozzle geometry for said Fourier series.