

The shaking stresses hanger assemblies and the pipes themselves, possibly to the point of rupture. In an earthquake, the ground and buildings move back and forth and fire sprinkler pipes, including risers and main feed lines, can shake violently. Remember, seismic braces resist horizontal forces. This post may be particularly useful for fire protection professionals and building managers who are unsure about whether they need or have sufficient seismic protections to meet current standards. What follows is a guide to these concepts and considerations it is not meant to be comprehensive instructions for designing and installing sway braces. The maximum allowable loads of hardware in the system.The way the seismic load is distributed through zones of influence (ZOI).
Nfpa 13 baffle install#
To properly install cable sway braces in your fire sprinkler system, you need to understand the following: If you do, you could end up with fire sprinkler pipe like this. You can’t just eyeball the placement seismic bracing. In an analysis of fire sprinkler damage from the 1994 Northridge CA earthquake, the World Conference on Earthquake Engineering found that one of the most common conditions associated with sprinkler leakage was a lack of longitudinal bracing. When sprinkler systems are braced inadequately or not at all, they may fail. Installing cable sway braces is actually the easy part figuring out where they should go is more difficult. The engineering behind proper sway brace design

Nfpa 13 baffle series#
In the previous installment of our series on seismic protections for fire sprinklers, we introduced the principles of sway bracing.
Nfpa 13 baffle how to#
Learn where seismic cable sway bracing is needed and how to install it
