Introduction: Arduino Deluge Fire Sprinkler System

A deluge sprinkler system is a form of dry fire sprinkler system in which the sprinkler heads are open. The water supply for the system is held outside of the sprinklers’ piping by a deluge valve where it is kept from becoming too hot/cold. The types valve is typically activated by a fire detection system or by manual activation.

My project is a deluge system that is activated by an IR fire sensor, that activates the system to pump water through the “piping” and onto the fire. It contains a notification system following NFPA 72 standards. A.18.4.8.1 notes that alarms tend to have 3kHz sound. 18.4.2.1 notes that the standard pattern the alarm sounds in is the Temporal-3 pattern, where the alarm sounds for 0.5s and then is off for 0.5s, repeating 3 times and then remaining off for 1.5s before restarting.

I have decided to create this due to my passion for Fire Protection Engineering and because I thought it would be quite cool!


Attached is a video demonstrating the system.

Attachments

Supplies

Step 1: 3D Printing the "Wall"

The first step was to design a "wall" for the speaker, LED, fire sensor, and tubing from the pump to be housed in. I designed a small "shelf" beneath the piezo speaker in order to support its awkward size and short pins. At first, I had designed the wall to be 1.5 inches tall, with the support for the tubing 2 inches long. However, when I printed this, it was quite small and the tubing support was not quite large enough, leading to kinking in the tube. I then edited the part to be slightly taller, extended the tubing support, and made the tubing support slightly taller so the tubing could be less restricted.

Attachments

Step 2: Coding

The code attached below reads if the switch is on, and then retrieves data from the fire sensor. If a fire is detected and the switch is still on the alarm and LED pattern will play and the relay will turn the pump on to suppress the fire. The system can only be turned off by switching the switch off, as is true for a normal fire sprinkler system.

Attachments

Step 3: Wiring

The attached wiring schematic was used to wire the system. The pump posed some difficulty to wire, as the connections were too small to fit into a F-M jumper cable, so two jumper cables had to be stripped and then spliced to the connections. For this project, I decided to use the digital readings of the Flame Sensor rather than the analog readings, so I have not wired it to an analog pin on the Arduino.

Attachments

Step 4: Assembly

There is not much assembly needed, simply route the wires through the holes in the 3D printed wall and hot glue the tubing to the hole on the 3D print. It is important to note that the pump will need a small water reservoir to sit in. While for the sprinkler system it is beneficial for water to disperse everywhere, I recommend a cup to catch the water if you do not want the surrounding area to become wet.

Step 5: Limitations & Potential Improvements

The system works pretty well! However, I would have liked to be able to attach a real sprinkler head to the system. This would require some threads to be added to the 3D print and the print would likely need to be much larger. Sprinkler heads also need 7psi of water pressure to push the plug out to allow for water flow, so a much stronger pump would also be needed. Another improvement could also be incorporating multiple fire sensors to allow for more coverage of the system.