Abstract
This paper is an experimental study to find an optimal detection method for detecting fire early in a rack-type warehouse stored with goods. In this study, we constructed rack-type structure with the fourth floor of 13.5 m high and conducted fire experiments which were to measure flow of heat/smoke in rack-type structure and response time of fire detectors. The detectors used at experiments were fixed temperature type detectors, rate of rise detectors, photoelectric smoke detectors, air sampling smoke detectors and flame detectors. The used ignition sources are n-heptane fire for response of heat detection and cotton fire for response of smoke detection. The fixed temperature type detectors, rate of rise detectors and photoelectric detectors were installed to every rack level respectively. The results show that the rate of rise detector should be installed every 2 levels and photoelectric smoke detector should be installed every 4 levels for the early stage fire detection. Air sampling smoke detectors can detect fire early in response to control of sensitivity, but there is a problem in false alarm. The fixed temperature detector is not suitable for early stage fire detection in warehouse and flame detector not worked if flame is not visible, so it need to install combination with other detector.