ROC MEETING MINUTES NFPA 75 Technical Committee on Electronic Computer Systems Thursday-Friday April 14-15, 2011 Doubletree Hotel, Dallas, TX

Transcription

1 ROC MEETING MINUTES NFPA 75 Technical Committee on Electronic Computer Systems Thursday-Friday April 14-15, 2011 Doubletree Hotel, Dallas, TX 1. Call to Order The meeting of the Technical Committee on Electronic Computer Systems at the Doubletree Hotel in Dallas was called to order by Chair, Ralph Transue at 8:00 am on Thursday, April 14, Introduction of Committee Members and Guests Self introductions of members and guests were completed. Those present are indicated below: Name Transue, Ralph-Chair Spataro, Joseph A.-Secretary Carman, Timothy-Principal Crowder, Vincent-Principal Deegan, Thomas-Principal Kaufman, Stanley-Principal Lang, Scott R.-Principal Langer, Robert L.-Principal Marts, Ronald-Principal McCluer, Stephen-Principal Pikula, Robert M.-Principal Powell, Bryan K.-Principal Puig, Richard-Alternate to B. Bischoff Quirk, David V.-Principal Salwan, Sam P.-Principal Schwartz, William T.-Alternate to J. Spataro Suski, Mark-Principal Willard, Randy-Principal Wysocki, Thomas J.-Principal Zolotar, David-Principal Bielen, Richard-NFPA Staff Liaison Hart, Jonathan R.-NFPA Staff Liaison DeGiorgio, Vincent-Guest Rivers, Paul-Guest Robin, Mark L.-Guest Joseph, Steven-Guest Tokarsky, E.-Guest Representing The RJA Group, Inc. Liberty Mutual Property Tyco Fire Suppression & Building Products Fireman s Fund Insurance Company The Viking Group, Inc. CableSafe, Inc./OFS Honeywell International Amerex Corporation Telcordia Technologies APC by Schneider Electric Reliable Fire Equipment Company XL Global Asset Protection Services Fike Corporation Verizon Wireless Environmental Systems Design, Inc. Liberty Mutual Property Aon/Schirmer Engineering Corporation US Central Intelligence Agency Guardian Services, Inc. Oracle America, Inc. National Fire Protection Association National Fire Protection Association FM Global 3M Dupont Dupont

2 3. Announcements NFPA Staff briefly reviewed the purpose of the meeting and NFPA s procedures. Jonathan Hart was introduced as the new Staff Liaison for the committee. Key dates were published in the meeting notice as: Dates for ROC Meeting April 11-13, 2011 Ballots Mailed to TC before May 20, 2011 ROC Published August 26, 2011 Intent to Make a Motion Closing (NITMAM) October 21, 2011 Issuance of Consent Document (No NITMAMs) December 13, 2011 NFPA Annual Meeting (Las Vegas) June 2012 Issuance of Document with NITMAM August 9, Approval of Minutes The minutes of the July 13-14, 2010 ROP Meeting held at Rolf Jensen & Associates headquarters in Chicago, IL were approved without changes. 5. Task Group Reports Ralph Transue reported on NFPA 75/76 convergence issues, and NFPA 75 correlation issues related to language in article 645 of the National Electrical Code. Ralph reviewed the evolution of Chapter 10 of NFPA 75 starting from requirements in NFPA 75 for power shutdown with the NEC picking up the How To by creating Article 645, a permissive section in NFPA 70, and eventually NFPA 75 extracting pertinent paragraphs from NFPA 70 (NEC) Article 645 with citation. The NFPA 70 Code Making Panel 12 created a Task Group to re-examine the requirements found in Article 645 soliciting input from NFPA 75. Dave Quirk presented extensive work on a task group studying HVAC air containment systems. This was supported by an animated PowerPoint presentation. HVAC airflow containment products were researched during 20+ conference calls over 3 months. The objective of air containment is to save energy and to maintain proper temperature conditions at the inlet to the equipment. ASHRAE TC9.9 guidelines were referenced for control of air flow, temperature, and humidity in both the hot aisle and the cold aisle using collar containment systems. Air containment systems are not plenums; they are part of the equipment. The task group worked on fire prevention, detection, suppression, and response. Vinnie DeGiorgio gave a presentation on increased use of combustible plastics in data centers. These are being used in cable ducts, and the partitions used in air containment systems, resulting in an increased fuel load in equipment spaces. Server rack fire behavior would be a good topic for research. What are the ignition source and the combustible load? Fire spread, smoke generation, risk tolerance (redundant location) and the effects of outgassing caused by exposure of plastics to elevated temperatures over time could also be examined.

3 6. Action on Comments The committee acted upon the 29 public comments that were received and created 5 additional committee comments. Refer to the F2011 Report on Comments (ROC) for the specific actions taken on each. 7. Old Business There was no old business. 8. New Business After action had been taken on each of the public and committee comments, the committee discussed many issues that may be more closely examined and researched prior to the next revision cycle of NFPA 75. It was determined that it may be useful for members to act as liaisons with other committees including Code Making Panel 12 of the NEC, and the ones responsible for applicable sections of NFPA 2001, NFPA 13, NFPA 72, and others that may be related. Task Groups may need to be formed to address the following topics: a) Risk assessment with exemplars in Annex or create a performance based chapter similar to NFPA 76. b) Take a fresh look at correlation with the NEC Article 645. c) Determine enhancements that could be made in requirements related to the development and use of risk assessments including consideration of the SFPE method for performancebased analysis and solutions. This would include review of under floor combustibles and protection requirements. Some of the topics which the committee feels may be useful to undergo further research include the following: a) Return air monitoring for smoke detection. b) The effectiveness of automatic methods for removing obstructions (specifically those created by aisle containment) prior to suppression system operation. c) Equipment (fan) airflow direction effect on agent concentrations for suppression within obstructed areas. d) Smoke detection and related threshold for fire size ( large facility), technology (detector type), and fire products. e) Maximum fire size to be expected in such facilities. f) Relations to NFPA g) Literature review to find pertinent statistics as to what starts a fire in IT equipment, what the initial materials are and other feature that can help to provide a risk informed design process. h) Determining test criteria that includes a consideration of the increased use of plastics. i) HVAC control/shut-down, how this can best be required and what effects this will have in possible thermal overloads through unintended shutdowns. 9. Adjournment The NFPA 75 ROC meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm.

4 Air Containment Task Group Report NFPA75 ROC NFPA76 ROC April 2011 Dallas, Texas

5 Overview NFPA 75 & 76 ROP Actions Joint Task Group on Air Containment Task Group Objectives Task Group Participants and Efforts Air Containment Systems 101 Purpose of them Industry drivers Types and configurations Topics Covered Plenum Issue Fire Resistance & Materials Suppression Detection Other topics (detachable links, etc) 2

6 Task Group Objectives Review FIRE PROTECTION risks, potential hazards, the application, and general fire safety requirements associated with HVAC airflow containment products and strategies that are installed in Data Centers and Telecommunications facilities. Perform a review of existing published literature on the topic. Recommend necessary research to NFPA and FPRF to uncover unknown or uncertain aspects related to the above review. Develop proposals that provide a MINIMUM level of fire protection in accordance with the scope of each Standard, necessary to minimize risks associated with fire and the associated loss of services and/or information. 3

7 Task Group Attendance Task Group Stats: 19 participants 9 NFPA76 7 NFPA75 5 General industry All stakeholders represented ASHRAE represented Participants Representation Affiliations Voting Present David Quirk (chair) End User NFPA76 & ASHRAE Alt TC9.9 Stephen McCluer End User NFPA 75 Y (co-chair) Ron Marts Consultant NFPA 76/75 Y Jeff Betz End User NFPA 76 Y Brian Rawson OEM NFPA 75 Y Bob Pikula FP manufacturer NFPA 76/75 Y Ralph Transue Consultant NFPA 76/75 Y Charles Quillin Insurance NFPA 76 Y Darrell Franchuk Steve Dryden Consultant NFPA 76 Y Vincent Degiorgio Insurance NFPA 76 Y Bob Rex FP Manufacturer NFPA 76 Y Scott Lang Wayne Aho Manufacturer NFPA 75 Y Jonathan Ingram FP manufacturer NFPA 76 Y Tom Wysocki FP manufacturer NFPA75 Y 20 conference calls Potential non-committee representatives from containment manufacturing Max Hibner Containment ASHRAE TC9.9 N Manufacturer Rich Kluge Consultant N Brian Donahue Containment N Dave Lucia Manufacturer Paul Rivers FP manufacturer N Dan Dahl Consultant 4

8 HVAC Air Containment 101 Airflow containment solutions are used by HVAC and Information & Communication Technology (ICT) professionals to reduce the unintended mixing of HVAC cooling airflows to serve the following performance objectives: Ensure proper entering air conditions on ICT hardware in accordance with ASHRAE TC9.9, Thermal Guidelines ( or directly ( Elevate return air temperatures at the HVAC equipment, which drives up system Coefficient Of Performance (COP) / increases energy efficiency, thereby reducing energy consumption and associated costs. Elevate return air temperatures at the HVAC equipment, to permit additional hours of economizer operation (compressor free cooling), thereby reducing energy consumption and associated costs. Containment is commonly separated into 1 of 2 categories: Hot aisle containment OR cold aisle containment. 5

9 CRAC Equip. Equip. CRAC Equip. Equip. HVAC Air Containment 101 Telecom Overhead Air Distribution Mixed Cooling Environment Lower power densities Variety of network equipment that are low voltage DC powered Data Center Raised Floor Air Distribution Hot/Cold Aisle Cooling Environment Higher power densities Server-Centric hardware - AC powered Dropped Ceiling Cable Racks R F F R R F R F 6

10 HVAC ICT Equip. HVAC ICT Equip. HVAC Air Containment 101 Overhead Cold aisle containment Underfloor Cold aisle containment Dropped Ceiling 7

11 HVAC ICT Equip. HVAC ICT Equip. HVAC Air Containment 101 Overhead Hot aisle containment Underfloor Hot aisle containment Dropped Ceiling 8

12 HVAC ICT Equip. HVAC ICT Equip. HVAC Air Containment 101 Overhead hot collar containment Underfloor hot collar containment Dropped Ceiling 9

13 Examples Hot Air Collars Blanking plates to prevent recirculation airflow 10

14 Examples Curtains 11

15 Examples Contained hot aisle with in-row cooling Hot air is trapped under Ceiling tiles Air flow, top view Air re-circulated at the floor level only Cooling units in row with ICTE equipment

16 Air Containment Items reviewed PREVENTION Materials of construction Listings, combustibility, flammability, etc Plenums issue DETECTION Detector locations Response times Temperatures on detectors SUPPRESSION Obstructions for sprinklers Gas concentrations Removable obstructions RESPONSE Impact to detection response Impact on suppression response Ability to find fire for first responders 13

17 Increasing Use of Combustible Plastics in Worldwide Data Centers March 2011 Vinnie DeGiorgio Vinnie DeGiorgio Principal Engineer FM Global

18 The Graduate 1967

19 Types of Combustible Plastics Rigid PVC, lexan (polycarbonate), plexiglass (PMAA), polyethylene and polypropylene Flexible PVC, polyurethane, kynar Foam Polyurethane Elastomeric Rubber Neoprene rubber

20 Properties of Combustible Plastics Heat Release Rate 2 3 times > ordinary combustibles Burning Rate 10 times > ordinary combustibles Smoke Produced Very dense, sooty, black smoke Toxic Gases hydrogen cyanide, HCL, phosgene Flaming Drips thermoplastics tend to melt & flow when heated Corrosion severe corrosion damage potential to sensitive electronic equipment & metal surfaces

21 ASTM E84 Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials (UL 723) 24ft. long x 20 in. wide specimens exposed to controlled 88 kw methane flame 240 ft. /min air flow Flame spread, fuel contribution & smoke are measured Flame spread is observed through windows

22 ASTM E84 Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials (UL 723) Provides a comparative measurement of surface flame spread & smoke density measurement

23 Per ASTM E84 Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics ti of Building Materials (UL 723) Does not provide the effect of aggravated flame spread behavior of an assembly resulting from the proximity to walls and ceiling (, (x, 2x, 4x) Testing materials that melt, drip or delaminateto to such a degree that the continuity of the flame front is interrupted Results in low flame spread & smoke density measurements

24 Cables (Data Center Equipment Room)

25 Cables Under Raised Floor

26 Cable Flammability

27 Cable Flammability

28 Fiber Optic Raceways/Routing Assemblies

29 Cables Trays

30 Hot/Cold Aisle Containment

31 Hot/Cold Aisle Containment

32 Hot/Cold Aisle Containment

33 Hot/Cold Aisle Containment

34 Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) Units Acoustical foam insulation inside

35 ASTM E84 Flame Spread = 25 Smoke Developed = 50 Chilled Water Piping Data Center FM4910 Fire Propagation Index = 6.6 FM4910 Smoke Development Index = 0.35

36 In Row Cooling Data Center Combustible Foam Insulation

37 Chilled Water Distribution Unit Data Center C b ibl F Combustible Foam Insulation

38 Foam Insulation Under Raised Floor Data Center