Applications16

WORLD PUMPS April 2013

www.worldpumps.com

Deluge pumps for fi re

training at airport

Fire fi ghting

fi t the four pumps into the space occupied by

one larger pump.

“The existing pumping arrangement was

using one pump and a 110 kw motor,” said

Richard Maher at AxFlow Windsor. “This ran

at full speed regardless of the demand on the

system, which could vary between fi lling the

fi re tenders’ on-board tanks to a full deluge

of the training rig itself. The new system uses

one 18.5 kw pump when fi lling the tenders

and three 18.5 kW pumps to fully cool the rig,

so there is a considerable saving in power

consumption. Also the pumps are controlled

At London’s Heathrow Airport,

training fire crews is an almost

constant activity, which is why it

has a purpose-designed fi re training rig

constructed from steel to the same size as

a Boeing 747. Packed full of safety sensor

devices it is a pretty expensive piece of kit

with a replacement price tag of around

£10 million. So when it is set on fi re during

training exercises, putting out the fi re has

to be fast and eff ective in order to ensure

safety for the fi re crews undergoing training

and preserving the integrity and fabric of the

rig (Figure 1).

In the interests of ensuring optimum perform-

ance and attaining greater energy effi ciency,

BAA Heathrow has recently replaced its

existing deluge pump system with a state-of-

the-art pump system designed and fabricated

by AxFlow Windsor. The new unit comprises

four Lowara 92SV3/2AG185T Vertical multi-

stage pumps with 18.5 kW motors. The pumps

have been sized for a duty of 1746 lts/min @

46.2 m/hd giving a total fl ow rate of 5,238 lts/

min with three pumps running (one being

used as a spare) (Figure 2). AxFlow Windsor

selected these pumps due to their high effi -

ciency and compact footprint as they had to

BAA Heathrow has recently replaced its existing deluge pump system with a state-of-the-art

pump system designed and fabricated by AxFlow Windsor. The new unit comprises four Lowara

92SV3/2AG185T Vertical multistage pumps with 18.5 kW motors. AxFlow Windsor selected these

pumps due to their high effi ciency and compact footprint as they had to fi t the four pumps into

the space occupied by one larger pump.

Figure 1: The purpose-designed fi re training rig constructed from steel to the same size as a Boeing 747.

WOPU0413_App_AxFlow 16 27-03-13 09:47:43

Applications 17

WORLD PUMPS April 2013

www.worldpumps.com

valves were opened to produce a full deluge

and the pumps succeeded in sending water

to all parts of the rig. “Under test the pumps

were slowly ramped down from full speed

to try and see at which point the head could

not be achieved,” Jolly said. “With three

pumps running the deluge was achieved,

but with two the head was not reached. This

gave a redundancy of 25% and still met the

requirements of the rig. With all four pumps

running the fi lling boom was also opened.

The fl ow was maintained to the rig with the

required head, enabling a tender to be fi lled

at the same time as the rig was being

used.

For the test, each pump was left running at

a full speed of 50 Hz and at this speed each

pump was pulling 33 amps at 17.5 kW. In

total the pumps are pulling 132 amps, 70 kW.

Limiting the current keeps the pumps below

the 200 amp threshold of the supply fuses,

with each pump set at 48 amps.

The current draw is just over half of the

previous installation with the power reduced

by the same factor. The use of variable speed

drives mean that the pumps pull no more

than the full load current on start up. The

redundancy of 25% means that servicing or

a breakdown can be attended to without loss

of service to the facility. The redundancy also

means that the rig and boom can be used in

conjunction with each other.

www.axfl ow.co.uk

by ABB ACH550 inverters so the running

speed can be set to match the duty exactly.”

Fire training is held on a regular basis with

each session ranging between one and two

hours. The rig is set on fi re internally and

externally with LPG, and the fi res last for

around three minutes. The purpose of the

deluge pumps is to cool the rig and to control

the overhead water fi ll on the fi re training

ground. The deluge starts before the scenario

and works through the period of the fi re and

then for about one minute after the fi re has

stopped.

Ian Jolly, BAA Water Services, says that when

the full test of the new pump system was

carried out at the fi re training rig all the

Figure 2: The new deluge pump unit comprises four Lowara 92SV3/2AG185T Vertical multistage pumps with 18.5 kW motors.

WOPU0413_App_AxFlow 17 27-03-13 09:47:43