Characterization of a medium velocity deluge nozzle for offshore installations

Abstract

It is important to study the characteristics of the nozzle of the deluge spray to comply with the standards developed by the petroleum industry for offshore installations in Norway. Due to the stochastic nature of the decomposition processes and geometrical features within the nozzle, the deluge spray has a complex flow field. Since the flow field determines the performance of the spray, the present study performs an experimental characterization of a medium velocity deluge nozzle for validation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. The experiment was conducted for a maximum supply water pressure of 8.0 bar (g), which is identical to the operating pressures of offshore installations. Formerly, characterization studies of deluge or sprinkler spray were mostly targeted on residential usage with lower supply water pressures. I utilized a laser-based shadow imaging system to capture high-speed images, which were later processed in MATLAB. A linear patternator was used to validate the results of the shadow imaging technique. The geometrical features of the deluge nozzle played an important role in determining the characteristics of the spray. In addition, the supply water pressure significantly affected the size and velocity distributions of the droplets, applied density (volume flux), and area coverage. However, the Sauter mean diameter did not vary significantly with the azimuthal or radial position of the droplet within the inner region of the spray. The measurements obtained in this study can be used to estimate the extinguishing efficiency of a deluge system for offshore installations with elevated supply water pressures. Deviations between measurements with shadow imaging and patternator technique are discussed and discrepancies are discussed.