Assignment:
Development of Fire Alarm Systems in Further Analytical Methods
Executive Summary
Fire detection and its corresponding safety systems, which in this case are fire alarms are a crucial part of a building and construction of new structures. This paper reviews the current state of development of fire detection and alarm systems by the application of Further Analytical Methods. New technologies and concepts developed in buildings, such as advanced multi-function sensors, computer vision systems and wireless sensors, real-time control via the Internet, and integrated building service systems, have also been reviewed and discussed. However the application of these in Further Analytical Methods will be an important focus as well. These new technologies and concepts will improve the capability of fire detection systems and fire alarms are used to discriminate between fire and non- fire threats and will increase the time available for property and life protection. However, much effort is still needed to remove barriers to the further development of these new technologies and especially when making an application of mathematical concepts like Further Analytical Methods (McClelland, 2005)
Introduction
A building can be defined as one that combines the best available concepts, designs, materials, systems and technologies to provide a responsive, effective and supportive environment for achieving the occupants' objectives over the full life-span of the building. This could include a complex school building, a laboratory, a hospital, a bank and any building that has human beings operating in it. Compared with traditional buildings, the current modern buildings should be able to reduce energy consumption, reduce maintenance and service operation costs, provide improved security services, improve ease of layout planning and re- planning, and increase the satisfaction of building occupant (So and Chan, 2009). Some of the other benefits of modern buildings include its adaptability to changing uses and technology and its environmental performance in providing safer, healthier and more comfortable working conditions. Modern building proponents also believe that these buildings will improve worker productivity through improved work environments as the technology used in developing them is beyond the old methods that were used. This is with focus to Further Analytical Methods.
Fire detection and the corresponding safety systems are crucial parts of an intelligent building. Billions of dollars are spent annually to install and maintain fire detection systems in buildings to assure safety from unwanted fires. Intelligent systems developed in the intelligent building offer opportunities to meet this task more effectively, efficiently and economically. New sensors will produce earlier and more reliable fire detection. Wireless systems will eliminate the need for cabling and offer opportunities for fire fighters to work out firefighting strategies before arrival at the fire scene. Integrated building systems hold the potential for reducing false alarms, speeding building evacuation and assisting in firefighting (Lafontaine, 2009). These changes will create new ways to provide fire safety and new markets for fire detection, alarm and fighting systems. As these technologies mature, changes to building practices may also result.
The information provided by sensors includes changes in both internal and external environments of a building, such as smoke, temperature and humidity, air quality, air movement, and the number of building occupants as well as a host of other properties. The system will use sensors to identify how a particular person tends to react to particular circumstances and to learn different behaviors for different people. The number of sensors required to obtain this type of functionality is quite high, especially since one of the major goals of modern buildings is to allow individualized control of an environment. This need will increase the cost of intelligent buildings and make it difficult to manage the resulting large amount of data. Development of cost- effective sensors has consequently been identified as a key need for intelligent buildings. Fortunately, many of the properties that need to be monitored can be used for multiple purposes. Security systems that can track the entry and exit of occupants from an office building can also be used to ensure complete evacuation of a building during a fire or even, in more advanced forms, determine where occupants may be trapped and unable to escape. Similarly, parameters such as temperature and air movement are as relevant to fire detection as the maintenance of the indoor working environment (Harrison and Read, 2008). Dual use sensors and sensor systems that are flexible enough to interpret data from different events will be key to making cost efficient intelligent buildings.
Efforts are being made to develop multi-function sensors for simultaneously detecting fire and monitoring indoor air quality (IAQ). Multi-function sensors that combine inputs from several different chemicals or physical processes would be expected to reduce the rate of false alarms and increase the speed of detection of real problems. They should therefore enhance fire safety while at the same time lowering total system costs. The chemical gas sensor has potential for this type of application. Chemical sensor techniques are now available for measuring almost any stable gaseous species emitted from materials and prior to or during combustion. Chemical species can be sensed through a multitude of interactions, including catalytic, electrochemical, mechanic- chemical, and optical processes. In one square inch, several hundred individual sensors can be placed in an array. By coating each sensor with a different semi-conducting material, several hundred different readings for gas signatures can be made by an expert system. Recently, one olfactory sensor array system has been developed for environmental monitoring and for fire and smoke detection. Such a system consists of an array of broadly-selective chemical sensors coupled to microprocessor-based pattern-recognition algorithms so that the changes in environmental conditions, such as CO, CO2 and smoke, can be detected (Read,2008).
A major issue in any sensor system is differentiating between different causes of the event being detected. Higher than expected levels of CO2, for example, may be the signs of a fire, but may also be a sign of poor air circulation within a room. When separate sensors installed in the building for fire safety, thermal comfort control and environmental monitoring can be integrated, sensitivity to fires and false alarm immunity can be significantly enhanced. These sensors are located in different positions in the building. Once a fire occurs, the system can take multiple fire signatures and the spatial relationship and status of adjacent detectors into account in making decisions. Separate fire sensitivity information produced by these sensors would be transmitted to a control panel where fire signal processing and alarm and fault determinations are made. The use of a powerful central processing unit (CPU) in the control panel would also allow the system to use complex algorithms and advanced signal processing for fire signature identification (Chapman, 2009).
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