Dry Testing

Dry Testing

Dry-Flo^® Deluge Testing

Dry-Flo^® testing of deluge systems involves flowing low pressure, conditioned air through the deluge system while measuring air flow pressure at chosen points in the deluge pipework. The Dry-Flo^®software within minutes centrally samples the measured readings to prove whether the deluge system is fully functional and in compliance with its original design.

Safeguarding Deluge Functionality

Fixed Fire Fighting Systems such as deluge water-spray, mist or foam systems are the primary defence against fire. Their periodic, often mandatory, testing is a basic necessity for ensuring the continued protection of humans, equipment and environment.

Water spray fire extinguishing installations are permanently installed systems with open nozzles and all buildings, constructions and items to be protected are covered by a depressurized, open network of pipes that in case of alarm gets flooded with pressurised water to instantaneously deliver vast amounts of water to all the nozzles as a group.

Preventing Wet Testing Costs

Until now such wet testing was the industry accepted method for ensuring the functional compliance of deluge systems but wet deluge testing is a time consuming and costly process:

Intensive water spray forms a potential hazard for electrical installations and processing equipment and it is thus common practice for the entire spray zone to have to be made safe (protective sealed bagging) before the wet testing can take place safely.

Wet testing produces a huge volume of, potentially contaminated, run-off water that needs to be disposed of responsibly.

Residual water, remaining undetected in the installation or equipment following a wet test, may cause Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI). This poses a safety (and financial) hazard in itself. In the open deluge pipe network any stagnant residual water causes chemical and biochemical corrosion which results in flow restrictions, at times even completely blocking pipes and nozzle outlets.

Dry Deluge Testing

Dry-Flo^® dry deluge testing address these problems by removing corrosive (sea-) water from the testing process altogether. The Dry-Flo^® equipment and analysing software give both graphical and numerical format output so the operator can quickly identify whether a tested system is performance compliant. When Dry-Flo^® detects a problem the software immediately shows the operator where the issue is within the system, allowing our technicians to inspect and remediate as necessary.

Dry-Flo^® system, available in both temporary or fixed installation versions, provides hassle-free deluge testing and is qualified in accordance with DNV-DSS-401, Technology Management /1/ while DNV GL considers it qualified for its intended use following DNV RP-A203 /2/