Building, fire and life safety codes often require the installation of duct smoke detectors in heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) ducts for the detection of fires in the HVAC system. Typically, these codes refer to NFPA 90A, Standard for the Installation of Air-Conditioning and Ventilating Systems, to determine if and where they are required. NFPA 90A in turn refers to the National Fire Alarm Code for specific design, installation and maintenance criteria for these detectors. There is no known research or data analysis that supports the prescriptive criteria in the National Fire Codes. Historically, these criteria reflect the engineering judgment of experienced practitioners in the field.
In an effort to support the committees and system designers, the Fire Detection Institute undertook a research program to study duct smoke detection and to provide technical data to the committees and system, designers. The Fire Detection Institute Duct Detection Research Initiative (FDI/DDRI) employed the research assets of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering of the University of Maryland (UMDFPE) and the National Research Council-Canada (NRC). The goals were to either support, change or eliminate duct smoke detection requirements from the codes and standards and to study the many myths about duct smoke detection. That research program has been completed and reports have been issued.
This CD contains a summary of this report.