The Evolution of Gasses in Fire Suppression Systems to Promote Changes in Industrial Towards Global Sustainability

The historical development of fire suppression technology evolved in the 1930s since the application of Halons as a fire extinguishing agent. The fire may cause tremendous losses to organizations. It affects the chain of businesses and the stability of the economic growth of a country. The key issues of greenhouse effects and safety and health as well contributes to the sudden change of the technology of fire extinguishing systems. The establishment of the Montreal Protocol and Kyoto Protocols controls the producers to develop, supply and use of environmentally hazardous gasses worldwide. Hence, promote global sustainable for upcoming generations. This paper is highlighting the reasons gas type fire extinguishing agents extensively used substituting conventional methods against fire. The fundamental equations of Ozone Depleting Potential and Global Warming Potential were properly discussed to show how severe these gasses exposed to the environment. The effectiveness of these gases as a clean agent in extinguishing the fire may convince prospect users to carry out the decision of changes. Potential extinguishing agents will be deliberated to investigate their needs as new fire suppression agents. It will be then to be suggested and recommended for further studies.

Alarm Sound Propagation Characteristics of Gas Extinguishing System Installed in Computer Server Room

Gas extinguishing systems are used for fire protection in server rooms and data centers. In the fire safety standards (NFSC 106, 107) of gas extinguishing systems (carbon dioxide, halon, and clean agent extinguishing system), sound alarm devices are installed in each protected area to provide an effective warning to personnel in the protected area or areas with objects to be protected. By measuring the noise level generated in a small server room, it was found that more than 70 dB of noise was generated. Therefore, to effectively transmit alarm sound to workers in all areas within the protection area, such as a server room, an acoustic alarm device must be designed and installed so that an alarm sound is transmitted at a level of 15 dB or higher than the noise level generated by equipment installed in the facility. As a result of predicting the alarm sound through the room acoustic simulation for a small server room equipped with an acoustic alarm system in a cabinet-type gas extinguishing system, it was found that it was insufficient in effectively delivering an alarm sound to the entire protection area. To effectively transmit an alarm sound inside the protection area where a gas extinguishing system is installed, the output of the alarm device needs to be increased and the room acoustic parameters should be predicted in advance using room acoustic prediction techniques and actively adjusting the acoustics according to the noise generated inside the protection area. Additionally, the distance between alarm devices needs to be shortened to deliver sufficient alarm volume throughout the protection area, and it is necessary to establish specific standards for this.