Integrity Testing
Room Integrity Tests
Enclosures protected by fire suppression systems should inspected for air-tightness after commissioning of the system and annually thereafter. This is vital to ensure that the fire suppression system will work effectively when activated; too much air-leakage will result in the designed concentration level of the fire suppressant agent falling too quickly.
What is a Room Integrity Test?
The Integrity of an enclosure is defined as the ability of the structure to adequately retain an extinguishing agent at a suitable level and concentration to suppress a fire condition. For any Gaseous Fire Suppression Installation to be effective, the design concentration must first be achieved and then suitably maintained within the risk - to achieve this, the enclosure must be adequately and effectively sealed
First the room is pressurised, readings taken, then afterwards to check those measurements the room is depressurised to take measurements to compare. The predicted retention time is calculated from these leakage characteristics and the enclosure and extinguishing system data.
The Integrity Test has been developed to help locate the source of leaks and, from the data collected, predict the retention time without the necessity to actually discharge any extinguishant. In order to determine with any degree of confidence that the hazard area will hold the agent for the required time period, an Enclosure Integrity Test in accordance with ISO 14520 / NFPA must be conducted.
