Engaged in data center fire prevention and control, this belongs to the scope of system engineering. It must consider the entire chain starting from prevention, then detection, then suppression, and finally recovery. Modern data centers are responsible for key businesses and data. Once a fire occurs, it may cause service interruption, data loss, and equipment damage, thereby causing great economic losses. An effective fire extinguishing system not only needs to be able to extinguish the flame quickly, but also needs to minimize secondary damage to precision electronic equipment. Therefore, it is very important to choose a suitable fire extinguishing solution.
What are the common causes of data center fires?
The most common cause of fires in data centers is electrical short circuits. High-density server cabinets have complicated power supply lines and long-term high-load operation, which may cause insulation aging and poor contact to cause arcs. Overheating or failure of UPS battery packs are potential fire sources, especially when lead-acid batteries are overcharged, which may release hydrogen and cause deflagration. During daily operation and maintenance, poor heat dissipation caused by dust accumulation can cause local overheating of equipment. Improper management of hot work during construction and renovation may also cause fires.
In addition to equipment factors, inadequate infrastructure maintenance will increase the risk of fire. Cable trays are blocked and ventilation is affected. PDU power distribution units are overloaded. Air-conditioning system failures lead to abnormal increases in ambient temperature. These are all proven to be potential catalysts for fires. Regular infrared thermal imaging inspections can detect hot spots in time. However, many data centers only rely on traditional smoke alarms and often respond when open flames appear.
How to choose the right gas fire extinguishing system
The traditional heptafluoropropane system is widely used. It does not conduct electricity when extinguishing electrical fires and leaves no residue after evacuation. However, these chemicals will decompose under high temperatures and produce hydrofluoric acid, which may corrode precision circuit boards. More importantly, the protective area must be sealed before the system is released, otherwise the fire extinguishing concentration will be difficult to maintain. For guarded areas, a delayed release mechanism must be considered to ensure that personnel can evacuate safely.
Inert gas fire extinguishing systems use mixed gases such as argon and nitrogen to extinguish fires by reducing the oxygen concentration to less than 15%. The biggest advantage of this type of system is that there is no chemical residue, but the structural sealing requirements are very high. The emerging perfluorohexanone system shows unique value. It has low fire extinguishing concentration requirements, small storage space and can be used in a manned environment. When selecting, it is necessary to comprehensively evaluate the structure of the protective zone, equipment value, and operation and maintenance costs.
How to apply water mist system in data center
High-pressure water mist uses special nozzles to atomize water into micron-sized particles, and uses surface cooling, oxygen isolation and suffocation to carry out fire extinguishing work. Its unit water consumption accounts for only 10% of the traditional sprinkler system, and the safety of live fire extinguishing has been certified by UL. The water mist can quickly reduce the ambient temperature during the evaporation process and effectively prevent re-ignition, which is of great significance for lithium battery fires.
When designing the system, it is necessary to arrange the nozzle spacing reasonably and pay attention to the spray angle to ensure that the hidden space inside the cabinet can be covered. A two-fluid water mist system stores water and nitrogen separately to avoid corrosion problems in pipelines. Although the initial investment of this system is relatively high, its water source is more convenient and the maintenance cost is relatively low, so it is especially suitable for ultra-large data centers in areas with sufficient water resources.
What are the key technologies for early smoke detection?
The very early air sampling detection system actively extracts air samples for analysis through the sampling pipe network arranged on the ceiling, actively extracts air samples for analysis through the sampling pipe network arranged under the raised floor, and actively extracts air samples for analysis through the sampling pipe network arranged in the cabinet. Laser detection technology can identify fine smoke particles at 0.001%/m, which is hundreds of times more sensitive than traditional point detectors. Its layered sampling design can accurately locate the fire source and gain valuable emergency response time for operation and maintenance personnel.
The advanced detection system, in addition to particle counting, also integrates gas analysis modules such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide to improve accuracy through comprehensive multi-parameter judgment. Some systems can even distinguish dust particles and combustion products, effectively reducing the false alarm rate. In addition, the detection system is integrated with the dynamic environment monitoring platform to achieve correlation analysis of temperature, humidity, and smoke concentration.
What are the advantages of cabinet-level fire extinguishing solutions?
When faced with high-density computing scenarios, the overall room-level fire extinguishing may not respond accurately enough. A fire extinguishing device is installed in the cabinet. The device can release agents directly at the fire source, which greatly reduces the amount of agents and cleaning costs. Such devices generally integrate thermal line detection and pressure injection technology, and their response time can be shortened to within seconds.
There are some designs that arrange perfluorohexanone spray nozzles on the top of the cabinet and install temperature-sensitive glass ball probes on the side walls. When the temperature in a specific area reaches a set threshold, the corresponding nozzle will be activated immediately. This kind of local application is particularly suitable for heterogeneous computing environments. It can quickly suppress fires without affecting adjacent cabinets, and provide global procurement services for weak current intelligent products!
What key points should a fire emergency plan include?
Disposal procedures need to be clear about fire conditions at all levels, and a complete emergency plan must do the same. For small electrical fires, the aerosol fire extinguishing device built into the cabinet can be used for preliminary control, and the smoke exhaust system can be activated to prevent the spread of smoke. For medium to large fires, the power supply to the area must be cut off immediately, the gas fire extinguishing system must be activated, and the fire department must be notified simultaneously.
Regularly conducted drills should cover all personnel on each shift and focus on the essentials of operating new fire-fighting equipment. The plan needs to include the priority protection sequence of key equipment, clearly indicate which servers need to be shut down first, and which businesses can be migrated to the disaster recovery site. The subsequent recovery process must record the equipment cleaning standards in detail and formulate a phased power-on detection plan to avoid the occurrence of secondary failures.
During the operation of your data center, have you ever encountered the dilemma of traditional fire extinguishing systems not matching high-density servers? Welcome to share your practical experience. If you find this article helpful, please like it and support it.
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