Room Integrity Test

After the gas discharging into the room, international standards require the gas concentreation should be stable in the room at least 10 minutes to prevent re-ignition.

After 10 minutes, the gas in the room shouldn’t be lower than 85% of the minimum design concentration.

This concentration value is checked for the minimum protection height and if this value is maintained for at least 10 minutes, the integrity dimension of the relevant space is evaluated within acceptable limits.

All these services are called room integrity test or control (door-fan test) and these test should be done before the system is started-up in all places where gas extinguishing system is installed.

How is the room integrity test done?

The room integrity test, also known as the door-fan test, is a way of measuring the amount of leakage of the relevant space.

A fan is temporarily placed at the entrance to the room to be tested. The fan speed is adjusted to achieve the flow pressure equivalent to the pressure applied during an extinguishing system discharge.

The fan is then reversed (lowers the pressure of the room) to the door to draw in air in the room.

The resulting air flow and pressure readings are entered into a special software designed to calculate the equivalent leakage area (ELA) for the room.

The software gives a report containing the results of how many minutes the room can hold the extinguishing gas at the desired concentration value.

What should be taken into consideration to ensure the integrity of the room?

It should be noted that most of the chemical agents used to extinguish fires are heavier than air.

Since the extinguishing gas that starts to be discharged will rise from the ground and begin to fill the space, it will start to leak very quickly from low-level leakage areas.

Therefore, damper, air duct, etc. could installed at the near to ceiling of the room will give more beneficial results in terms of leakage safety.

After the room integrity test, the openings in the spaces that don’t meet minimum requirements should be determined with smoke test equipment.

The detected openings should be closed with suitable type of fire resistant filling materials and the room integrity test should be repeated.