System and method for evaluation of fluid flow in a piping system

A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program to evaluate fluid flow performance of an arbitrary dry pipe fire protection system without a physical test of the actual system, the computer program causing a computer processor to perform:

• configuring a user interface for entry of a plurality of physical attributes of the dry pipe fire protection system having a plurality of pipe segments and a plurality of piping connections including a dry pipe valve and a plurality of sprinkler heads connecting the plurality of pipe segments so as to define a system capacity greater than 500 gallons;
• generating, in connection with the computer processor and based on the physical attributes, a line-node-model of the dry pipe fire protection system including a plurality of lines and a plurality of nodes, the lines characterizing the plurality of pipe segments and the nodes characterizing the plurality of piping connections, the model having a closed configuration in which a gas fills the pipe segments to hold the dry pipe valve in a closed position, and the model having an open configuration in which at least one hydraulically remote sprinkler head is open such that gas escapes the system;
• solving, in conjunction with at least one of a first computational engine and a second computational engine, for transient flow or pressure in the operation of the dry pipe fire protection system from the closed configuration to the open configuration and the characteristics of pressure and flow of gas and liquid in each pipe segment of the arbitrary dry pipe fire protection system defining the capacity greater than 500 gallons;
• and
• determining, in conjunction with the at least one of the first computational engine and the second computational engine, a time duration for any one of:
• (i) gas pressure to drop below a threshold pressure to operate the dry pipe valve from the closed position to an open position to permit liquid from a liquid source to fill the pipe segments;
• (ii) liquid to travel from the liquid source to the at least one open hydraulically remote sprinkler;
• or (iii) liquid traveling from the liquid source to the at least one open hydraulically remote sprinkler to reach a steady state flow or pressure condition;
• indicating, based upon the time duration, whether the arbitrary dry pipe fire protection system will deliver liquid to the at least one hydraulically remote sprinkler in the system within a threshold time;
• and
• modifying the physical attributes of the arbitrary dry pipe fire protection system in the model so that the liquid is delivered to the at least one hydraulically remote sprinkler within the threshold time when it is indicated that the system delivers liquid to the at least one hydraulically remote sprinkler in a time greater than the threshold time.