Other uses for Cat 3208s

[sprink56]

I thought you guys would like to see what else Cat 3208s are used for. A few years ago I did an AFFF Foam/WaterFire Sprinkler System in an Aircraft Maintenance Hangar for Lear Jet in Ft. Lauderdale. This hangar is about 50,000 sq. Ft. and 50 ft tall. In protecting one of these for a Jet A fuel spill we use a 3% concentration of AFFF Foam mixed with water. This hangar is protected by 3: Deluge Systems which means that every sprinkler in the building is open and it all dumps at one time.

The systems are fed by 3: 3000 GPM verticle turbine diesel pumps powered by 3: Cat 3208s drawing suction from 3:20" wells. Each pump/well arrangement is in a pump house that are 100' apart. The 10" discharge from each pump feeds a 14" underground supply that runs into the building to a valve room. The valve room has all of the Foam equipment as well as the several Deluge System Risers fed from a 12" header.

When the Infra Red Detectors see a fire, all of the zones dump and all 3 pumps start.....9000 GPM is flowing into the building !!!

Here are some pics of all of this. I really enjoyed doing this one.

This was back when we were still building things and the economy was strong.

If I could do 2 or 3 of these a year I would be into some serious boating.:thumbsup:

Inside View of Hangar

Taking delivery of the Fire Pumps

Fire Pump Installation with 275 gallon fuel tank (Typ for 3)

Pump Discharge Test

Inside Valve Room...1800 Gallon Foam Tank to left.

Valve Room

Serious Pipe Fitting Work:thumbsup:

Full 3: Zone AFFF Dump Test...I think the planes will be safe.

 

[carterchapman]

I can't upload it - too big - but I've got a great .pps of that system "going wrong" during an Air Force test.

Anybody know how to upload a 3.7mb .pps file?

 

[fc3]

You have to post them to a different web site and link them from there.

 

[The Bill Collector]

I can't upload it - too big - but I've got a great .pps of that system "going wrong" during an Air Force test.

Anybody know how to upload a 3.7mb .pps file?

I have discovered that my Microsoft photo editor has a compression feature to make it smaller.....:smt038:smt038:smt038

 

[sprink56]

You might be refering to this comedy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhdzjNg0PH8&feature=related

Our set up was different in that we used a Foam Water Fire Sprinkler system that did not use high expansion foam. Our advantage is not having this mess as well as a totaly uniform distribution. I you look closely at the first pic you can see huge floor drains near the center of the hangar floor. These drains have 24" wide x 36" deep catch trenches beneath them that drain into 36" diameter run offs leading to a containment area. The drains worked so well that during the testing, no more than 6" of Foam/Water collected in the floor and it drained off rapidly.

However...things can go wrong. These systems rely on the integrity of the detection system. I did not contract or install the detection system on this job. One morning at 4 AM a year after we completed this job, I got a call from Lear telling me that they had a "Dump". My first question was if they had a fire. They weren't sure.:huh:

I raced down to the hangar and the pumps were still running!!:smt101
Understand that I had given about 15 of their staff a 45 minute course on how this system works and how to shut it down. There is enough AFFF Foam in the tank to run for 10 minutes...after that it's just water. The pumps have enough fuel to run for 2 hours+ and when I got there all 3: tanks were less than 1/4 full.
I had to ask why they didn't shut the whole thing down...answer...the guy with the key was on vacation :smt013.:grin:

Turns out after months of forensic investigation that the electrical contractor on the job used stranded copper wire instead of solid (solid is code reqired and was specified) to wire the detectors and pull stations. After a year of corrosion and vibration one small strand of wire at a terminal block at a pull station got too close to the adjoining terminal and shorted the system. That sent the signal to ALL of my Deluge Systems to discharge and started the pumps.

There was no fire and there were 6: Lears and three Citations in the hangar at the time. All of the aircraft had the nose cones open and the engine covers removed. Every body from the site contractor to the landscaper got sued on this deal. My liability coverage paid only for the defense and motions and I was ruled in the clear. The GC, Electrical Contractor and the Electrical Engineer...not so lucky....don't know the exact number but...you know....it was big.

We did a similar job at Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West in 2: hangars. I got a call about 6 months after this Lear incident that they had a Jet A fire next to a YF-18 that was barely inside the door of the hangar. The system discharged and the clean up was minimal...no aircraft was out of service and we went down and re-filled the Foam Tank, re-set the systems and every thing was back to normal.

I don't even want to think about the damage and loss of life with a fully involved Jet A fire in a hangar with out Fire Suppresion. You have to use foam because water spreads a flamable liquid fire.

I don't know what happened to cause that "clown show" in the You Tube video but you can bet the Air Force found out.:thumbsup:

 

[carterchapman]

That's the one Sprink! Thanks!

I appreciate the background info; very interesting.

 

[Jack F]

That's pretty wild, reminded me of this.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhs7eCliAHA[/youtube]

 

[douglee25]

Pretty cool stuff.

Doug

 

[docofthebay]

Referring back to the frie suppression test that wouldn't stop, the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl was the result of a test too. They intentionally cranked the reactor up too hot in order to test the automatic shutdown mechanisms. The first worked, so they disabled it and then sequentially tested and disabled the next ones in line. They went thru several autoshutdowns but then they found one that did not kick in. When they then manually tried to back off the reactor, they had already passed the point of no return, and the rest is history.

 

[Jackie J V]

Love seeing CAT engines in action. Thanks!

 

[Chris Dauth]

:thumbsup: Good one John.

I sent a PM as well

 

[Hampton]

I was in the hangar in Key West when the foam system went off. We were in the 2nd floor briefing rooms that over-looked the hangar floor through windows. We heard the alarms and rushed to the windows. We watched as the foam filled the hangar up to the wings of a few F-18's that were parked in there.

Maintenance crews were scrambling to close the canopies. I'll have to dig the photos out. We thought it was some funny stuff.

 

[osd9]

Very cool.....did you special order the motors painted Red?