HYDRAULIC CALCULATION OF PROTECTIVE WATER CURTAINS

In recent years, water curtains have increasingly been used in fire-fighting water supply systems for fire extinguishing, cooling, irrigation, protection of process areas of berth complexes, overpasses and areas for servicing tanks with petroleum products. The efficiency of water curtains largely depends on the results obtained from the hydraulic calculation made for fire-fighting water supply system. The current regulatory documents contain a methodology for hydraulic calculation of water curtains with jets directed vertically downwards and with jets flowing vertically upwards. The methodology, however, leaves without consideration the multi-loop nature of fire-fighting water supply systems and the actual flow rate and altitude characteristics for sprinklers. The study proposes approximating dependencies of flow rate and altitude characteristics of widely used nozzles of the NP type for water curtains. It also proposes a mathematical model of flow distribution in fire extinguishing systems with water curtains with jets directed vertically upwards, which can serve as a basis for the hydraulic calculation of water curtains. The model and approximating dependencies are implemented in the ISIGR software. A distinguishing feature of the software isits application via the Internet. The software users have access to a graphical interface with advanced tools for drawing a network and setting data on its components arbitrarily or through the equipment database. Additionally, users can approximate the characteristics of pumps.