OTe 6927

Design Enhancements for Offshore Platform Fire Systems

R.E. Dailey and R.E. Mayhew, Exxon Co. USA

Copyright 1992, Offshore Technology Conference

This paper was presented at the 24th Annual OTC In Houston, Texas, May 4-7, 1992.

This paper was selected for presentation by the OTC Program Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper,
as presented, have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Offshore Technology Conference or its officers. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The
abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented.

ABSTRACT "Emp1oyees are expected to

utilize provided equipment and
Existing firewater/deluge systems on open Gulf training to protect themselves,
of Mexico type offshore platforms were their fellow employees and, if
evaluated to improve their operation and practical, the facil ity by
reliability, and to reduce maintenance. controll ing a fire in its
Pumps, fi rewater systems and deluge systems incipient stage. The Company
were upgraded to meet performance and does n2i expect employees to
reliability criteria developed from field and fight severe or escalating fires
fire testing as well as survey data. Upgraded or to use equipment for which
systems utilize bronze pumps and valving; they have not been trained."
fi bergl ass and all oy pi pi ng; and a central
manifold design. Deluge nozzle placement The firewater systems provided are typically
changed from impingement spray similar to NFPA fed by auto-start diesel engine driven pumps
15 requirements to area/density spray similar and contain both manual fire equipment (hose
to NFPA 13 requirements and coverage was reels and monitors) and automatic deluge
increased. Principles of material selection (water spray) segments. The deluge is
and nozzle placement are applicable to all provided to both assist manual fire fighting
offshore facilities where reliable automatic and prevent escalation.
fire control is desired.
FIRE PUMPS
INTRODUCTION
Dual, 100% capacity, fire pumps are provided
The size and nature of an offshore firewater except on gas platforms that can be shut down
protection system depends to a large extent on when a pump is out of service. In such cases,
the operator's emergency response philosophy, facility blowdown is an alternative means of
but if a firewater system is employed, common preventing escalation and only one pump is
prob1ems can be encountered. The author's installed. If possible, pumps are located on
company offshore fire response guideline different deck levels to prevent a pool fire
states: from affecting both pumps. A1so, when
possible, at least one of the pumps is located
in or adjacent to the muster or safe area.
Pumps are vertical turbine design driven
through a right angle gear, and ratings are
either 1500 or 2500 gpm at 140 psi cellar deck
level discharge pressure. Size is dependent
on total deluge area, and head-capacity curves
meet NFPA 20 requirements. This means that
References and illustrations at end of paper. end-of-curve performance is 2250 or 3750 gpm

485
 2 DESIGN ENHANCEMENTS FOR OFFSHORE PLATFORM FIRE SYSTEMS
at 90 psi which, without hose and monitor use,
wi 11 cover several del uge zones as will be
explained later.
A review of test and maintenance records
indicated that the average time between
overhauls was 3 years for the coated cast iron
pumps in general use. A smaller sampling of
nickel aluminum bronze pumps was averaging 10
years between overhauls which coincides with
manufacturer's experience overseas. Nickel
a1umi num bronze pump assembl i es cost three
times as much as the cast iron assemblies, but
the longer time between overhauls makes the
investment attractive and the greater
reliability is a safety bonus.
FIREWATER SYSTEM
Conn gurati on
Since the mid-1970's, when water depth made
separate quarters templates impractical, fire
systems have been designed as segmented loops
just as in gas plants and refineries. Hose
reels, monitors and deluge zones were
distributed around the loop so that if a
portion was damaged it could theoretically be
isolated with loss of only 25% of design
capability. A fresh look at this design
uncovered several desirable improvements
considering the close confines of a platform.
For instance, a really serious incident could
make it difficult to reach the segmenting
block valves. New and replacement systems
utilize a manifold design (Fig. 1), with the
manifold located in or adjacent to the muster
area. Where a replacement system could not be
justified, power actuated loop isolating
valves were installed with the control located
in a safe area at or near the muster area.
Manifolds
Manifolds offer several advantages over loop
designs:
• Damaged sections of the system can be
safely isolated
Fresh water test/flush/treatment is
simpl ified
Del uge control can be manually over-
ridden if required
Man i fo1ds are des igned wi th two fi re main
take-offs (one main each side of platform) to
feed hoses and monitors so that they can be
isolated if damaged. Hose reels are arranged
on the mains such that any point can be
reached with two hoses. This is intended to
allow an upwind fire attack, but it also
provides redundancy in the event one main
should be lost. Monitors, to the extent that
they could be effective, are also installed on
the mains. The manifold and manual mains are
kept water filled and pressurized to 50-60 psi
486
OTC 6927
by an electric submersible jockey pump.
Materials
Historically, industry fire systems in the
Gulf of Mexico were constructed of internally
coated carbon steel pipe for sizes 6" and
larger, and galvanized steel pipe for sizes 4"
and smaller. Valves 6" and larger were bronze
trimmed cast iron gates, while valves 4" and
smaller were carbon steel body, stainless
steel trim ball type. This combination of
materi a1s stood up very well from external
appearances, but functioning was not as
reliable as desired without high levels of
maintenance. Plugging of nozzles with failed
internal coating or marine foul ing was
frequent necessitating frequent flushing. The
cast iron gate valves soon froze in position,
and the ball valves soon leaked necessitating
frequent replacement. For new platforms and
for retrofits on longer life (10+ years)
existing platforms, we selected 90-10 copper-
nickel pipe and fittings because of its
resistance to marine fouling. Earlier
retrofi t jobs were all wel ded and fl anged.
Currently, we are using welded and mechanical
grooved fittings as Cu-Ni fl anges are very
expensive. For retrofit to shorter life
platforms, we selected Fiberglass Reinforced
Pl ast ic (FRP) pi pe. Industry and our own
tests indicate that FRP has the required
strength and fire resistance when water
filled, and it does not support heavy marine
fouling. All valves are aluminum bronze,
angle disc resilient seat butterfly type for
6-inch and larger and ball type for 4" and
smaller. Although our experience with these
selections is just over one year, performance
has met expectations, and overseas affiliates
have had excellent experience with these
material selections over a number of years.
AUTOMATIC DELUGE SYSTEMS
Area Coverage
Existing deluge systems covered wellbays,
headers and diesel fuel storage tanks and were
designed for impingement spray per NFPA 15
(Fig. 2). Our philosophy for new and upgraded
platforms now requires coverage of all
hydrocarbon handl i ng areas to guard against
escalation, especially to pipeline areas.
Based on both published literature and testing
performed at our fire school, we set new rate
goals at 0.75 gpm/sq. ft. plan area in
wellbays and pipeline areas and 0.25 gpm/sq.
ft. for all other areas. The platforms were
divided into deluge zones and the maximum size
zone was set at pump design capacity less a
monitor nozzle (500 gpm) and a hose line (100
gpm). Nozzle layout was by area/density per
NFPA 13 (Fig. 3) as our testing indicated much
higher heat removal overall witt. this
arrangement. The nozzles selected yield rates
 OTC 6927 R. E. DAILEY, R. E. MAYHEW
of 0.8-0.9 gpm/sq. ft. in wel 1bays and
pipeline areas and 0.3-0.4 gpm/sq. ft. in all
other areas, depending on the pattern overlap.
The initial reason for investigating the
change to area coverage was the decision to
utilize 1/2" minimum orifice nozzles rather
than our 3/8" previous standard. To get
complete impingement spray coverage with this
size nozzle within the space constraints of an
offshore platform would require huge volumes
of fi rewater wi th dens ities far above the
recommended 0.25 gpm/sq. ft. The heat removal
efficiency would also be very low since
flame/water contact would occur only on the
sprayed surface where flame impinged. Another
factor considered is the considerable length
of smaller piping installed near deck level
where it could be easily daDlaged.
Instrumented wellhead testing and subjective
test i ng on a vessel i ndi cated that overhead
area/density spray removed more heat and
nearly matched impingement spray in equipment
cool ing. Since hydrocarbon fires exist in
space and not on surfaces, filling space
around equ i pment insures more contact with
flame for direct contact heat exchange. The
result of the area coverage design was
improved cooling of the fire while still
cooling the equipment and meeting the
mechanical objectives that initiated our
studies.
Nozzle Selection
Nozzle selection proved to be both interesting
and challenging. We determined that a 1/2"
minimum orifice, minimum free passage was
necessary to minimize plugging since strainers
had proved ineffective with the stringy
material pumped from the Gulf. We knew that
droplet size would have to be a compromise
between the optimum for heat removal (300
micron) and wind resistance (600 micron). We
didn't know that we couldn't simply go to a
catalog and find the answers. The fact that
nozzles circulate 300 to 500 cfm air for each
gpm of water delivery also means that they can
do some strange things with their theoretical
patterns. Standard spri nkl er heads seem to
provide the most uniform pattern performance
with varying system pressure; however, their
droplet size is always too fine to resist wind
drift. Whirl type nozzles produce a very good
compromise droplet size, but their pattern
narrows as pressure increases above 50-60 psi
(Fig. 4). Spiral impingement nozzles produce
an average droplet somewhat finer than
desirable for wind drift resistance, but their
pattern enlarges as pressure increases if air
is available to circulate into the pattern
(Fig. 5).
Full cone spiral impingement nozzles produce
2 or 3 bands of relatively coarse droplets
that surround wider bands of relatively fine
droplets. We found that at our system design
487
3
pressure of 80 psi, nozzles with 3/4" or
larger orifices, all of the coarse bands are
drawn together and enclose a cone of fine fog.
Thi s behavi or greatly increases wi nd dri ft
resistance and enhances heat removal also.
Testing at our fire school indicated that two
1-1/2" orifice nozzles positioned to deliver
0.8 gpm/sq. ft. into our 20' x 20' mock
wellbay were capable of encapsulating and
extinguishing a simulated wellhead fire of 12
MMCF/D, the maximum capacity of this
evolution.
Hydrauljc Design
Piping hydraulic design for deluge system
upgrades was based on keeping velocity below
the erosive velocity of copper-nickel (11
fps). This low velocity results in low
pressure drop so that pressure differences
between nozzles is negligible. Additionally,
design for area/density down spray gave us the
opportunity to loop many of the deluge zones
to further reduce pressure differences. All
deluge zones originate at the manifold where
manual control override enables the personnel
to manually select zones to be deluged and to
isolate a zone that may have been damaged in
an initial event. Unless the fire pumps are
very large, this water conservation is
essential in delivering design spray to
critical areas. As with the fire mains, our
initial retrofits utilized welded and flanged
spools while in later designs mechanical
grooved couplings replace the flanges.
Material Select jon
Material selection for deluge is even more
important than for fire mains if nozzle
plugging is to be avoided. Autopsy of
existing galvanized carbon steel pipe systems
found heavy, hard scale corrosion in all dry
pi pi ng. These scale sheets were generated
downstream of system strainers and were large
and strong enough to plug almost any size
nozzle. This scale also resists system
flushing, so that even conscientious
maintenance is no assurance that a few nozzles
might not plug on testing. As with the fire
mains, two materials were selected based on
platform remaining life. For short lived
platforms, type 316L stainless steel was
specified and for longer life platforms, 90-10
copper nickel was specified. For both
materials, a high volume fresh water
test/fl ush system is provided to keep from
wetting equipment and decks with salt water
during function testing. This is absolutely
essential for stainless steel systems as
residual chlorides would rapidly pit the
material. It is also essential that stainless
steel systems be drained completely after the
fresh water flush. Since it is very difficult
to secure complete drainage in a retrofit
system, later jobs have employed copper-nickel
regardless of platform life expectancy.
 4 DESIGN ENHANCEMENTS FOR OFFSHORE PLATFORM FIRE SYSTEMS OTC 6927

Incremental installed cost of the copper-
nickel was approximately 10% over stainless
but it will avoid future maintenance or
replacement that would be necessary if the
system could not be drained.
CQ!lW!l
Control of deluge was by the same butterfly
valves used manually but with normally open
cylinder type valve actuators. The fusible
plug loops required by API RP 14C (and the
MMS) were re-arranged to coincide with the
deluge zones, and output was fed to a new
pneumatic control panel for the deluge valves.
The panel was equipped with a dedicated air
receiver to hold supply in the event of power
failure in order to ensure that only tripped
deluge valves open. The panel also outputs to
the platform control panel to actuate the
platform Emergency Shutdown System (ESD).
CONCIUSION.S
corrosion resistant and durable in sea water
service and introducing new design
philosophies. Pumps, piping, valves and
accessories must all be considered because
failure of any component will reduce the
effectiveness of the whole system. Although
copper-nickel, bronze and FRP are more
expensive than carbon steel, they will perform
in this environment to give the expected
reliability and may even reduce the life cycle
cost of a fire system. Automatic deluge is
very effective in removing the heat from a
fire to minimize the possibility of
escalation. Even if an operator’s emergency
response plan calls for immediate evacuation
in the event of a large fire, the extra time
purchased by deluge may be well worth the cost
of a reliable system. System reliability can
be significantly improved with an engineered
design considering selection of materials,
location of components (pumps, manifold,
control panel), controls logic, and nozzle
type and placement.

Offshore firewater systems can be improved

through selection of materials that are

W. FIRE MAIN E. FIRE MAIN

ZONE A ZONE B ZONE C ZONE N
.

4,
1. FIREPUMP2
FIREPUMPI

FIRE SYSTEM
MANIFOLD
FIG. 1

488
IMPINGEMENT SPRAY
(WLA-45)

6)

AREA SPRAY

489
 40 psi 80 psi

WHIRL NOZZLE
FIG. 4

40 psi
80 psi

SPIRAL IMPINGEMENT
NOZZLE
FIG. 5