K14 ESFR Design Option in NFPA 13

[Sdpaddler50]

NFPA 13, 2007, Table 17.3.3.1 allowed K14, 12 @ 75 psi for 30 ft of cartoned, unexpanded plastics within racks. There are mega millions of big boxes out there with this design.

I just looked this up in the 2010 version of 13 for a project I am working on, and the K14 option is gone for 30/40 ft. The smallest ESFR head for this storage configuration is K17 (12 @ 52). Strange, because FM 8-9 still has the K14 option in DS 8-9, Table 8.

Anyone know why this design was pulled from 13? FM did most of the fire testing supporting these designs, so if they still have it, why would the 13 committe pull it?

 

[Sdpaddler50]

Correction, everything i have written above is correct, but its the 2013 version (not the 2010) version of NFPA 13 that dumped the K14 for this storage configuration. The areas i work in have not adopted the 2013 version yet. This is a big change.

 

[Sdpaddler50]

No replies, so i did some research. Apparently a test at UL failed so the 13 committee pulled it. FM still has the noted protection scheme.

 

[acb324]

Very interesting. Thank you for posting!