Testing the Effects of an Activated Fire Suppression System in High-Density Storage Environment and Planned

Prioritization for Optimal Material Removal

Presented by: Jennifer Hain Teper, Conservation Librarian

Head, Preservation and Conservation UnitsUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services

Illinois’ Oak Street Library Facility

An overview of our facility…• Opened in 2006• 1.4 million volumes in Vault I

and 1.1 million volumes in Vault II (65% capacity)

• Vault III currently under construction– Mobile high bay shelving– Anticipated to hold 2.48 million

volumes when fully equipped

Design of a Disaster Recovery Protocol – ongoing since 2008

Required unique areas of expertise…• What should we expect?• What types of events should we

plan for?• In the case of an event, how do

we move up to several million books quickly and efficiently?

• Can we identify where special collections materials are within the ranges?

The University Library collaborated with Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering

(IESE) Program for assistance• Gather statistical data to determine disaster probabilities

and economic losses• Recommend facility improvements to aid recovery plan and

reduce risk• Create a disaster recovery plan

—Layout—Retrieval—Physical recovery

Fire Suppression Study Overview• Tested water movement first with

modeling software• Utilized actual sprinkler head in ‘worst

case scenario’ position• Tested on actual shelving used in HDS

facility • 5’x3’x3’

• Utilized realistic positioning of shelf heights

• Ran for realistic 30 minutes of “extinguishing” sprinkler

• Tracked tray and book weights both before and after the testing

• NIST Fire Dynamic Simulator

• Replicates sprinkler system and shelves

• What areas are most affected?

• Cascading effects

Sprinkler/Fire Modeling

• Test I to track absorption of water , expansion of materials, and damage to bound items in typical HD storage trays and wrapped newspapers

• Test II to track absorption same in typical archival boxes and flat files

Live Sprinkler Head Activation Tests

Set-up of the racks Sprinkler Test I– Front and side views

The test ran for 30mins

Sprinkler Test I Statistics

• Average Dimensional Expansion for a Book: 17%• Average Overall Weight Increase for a Book

– With enclosure: 40%– Without enclosure: 85%

• Distribution of Damage– Front trays held an average of 16% more water than

back trays

31%

80%

45%

107%

29%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

Top Shelf 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

Newspapers

As the cascade develops on the array, trays begin to experience reduced water gain

Trays that lost books during the test have been excluded from the average.

Examples of resulting damageSprinkler Test I

Examples of resulting damageSprinkler Test I

Examples of Resulting DamageSprinkler Test I

Examples of Resulting DamageSprinkler Test I

Set-up of the racks Sprinkler Test II– Front and side views

The test again ran for 30mins

Sprinkler Test II Statistics

• Average Overall Weight Increase : 45%– test I results = 40% increase with enclosure– 85% increase without enclosure

• Measured swell in trayed items similar to Test I• Flat File data discarded due to leak in piping near

elbow

Examples of Resulting DamageSprinkler Test II

Examples of Resulting DamageSprinkler Test II

Prioritized ExtractionCreated modified greedy algorithm for Vault I to locate dispersed special collections materials for most rapid retrieval from identified areas of highest concentrations

L24 L25 L26 L27 L28 L29 L30 L31 L32 L33 L34 L35 L36 L37 L38 L39 L40 L41 L42 L43 L44 L45 L46S19 TOPS18 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24" 24"S17 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12"S16 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12"S15 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12"S14 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12"S13 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7"S12 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7"S11 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7"S10 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7"S9 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7"S8 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7" 7"S7 9" 9" 9" 9" 9" 9" 9" 9" 6T-21 9" 6T-44 5T-22 5T-52 9" 9" 6T-46 9" 9" 9" 9" 9" 9" 9"S6 10" 1T-10 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10"S5 6T-47 9T-131 10" 2T-27 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 2T-15 10" 10" 10" 3T-42 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10"S4 13T-182 4T-11 1T-11 5T-89 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 14T-1956T-15 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10"S3 3T-24 2T-24 10" 11T-159 10T-110 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 4T-58S2 9T-134 9" 9" 9" 9" 4T-14 13T-146 9T-88 9" 9" 9" 3T-34 1T-101T-12 9" 10T-5716T-269 9" 12T-19116T-2529T-163 9" 9"S1 2T-13 10" 10" 15T-282 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 2T-11 10" 4T-18 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10" 10"

Prioritized Extraction• Recommended future placement of special collections

materials to reduce risk of damage and allow for manual retrieval (started in Vault II)

• Recommended use of similar tray used for general collections for both wet strength and reduced ease of identification (ideally identified by colored label saver)

Future Implications

• Vault III to include mobile high-bay shelving

• Will require considerable changes to recovery plan• Prioritization• Extraction

Thanks!Illinois Fire Services Institute Staff: Richard Jaehne, Brian Brauer and Gavin Horn

IESE Students: Ian Bradley, Tim Kennedy, and Chris Manna

Cecil Bilbo: Director of the Academy of Fire Sprinkler Technology

University of Illinois Library Preservation, Conservation, Facilities and Administration Offices