Cartoned Lithium Ion Battery Storage Sprinkler Protection

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Cartoned Lithium Ion Battery Storage Sprinkler Protection
Benjamin Ditch, FM Global Richard Long, Exponent, Inc.

The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) recently completed a multi-phase project to develop guidance for the fire protection of lithium ion batteries in storage. The first two phases of this project, a hazard assessment and a large-scale flammability characterization, were completed in 2013. A final validation phase was completed in 2015. This presentation will review the results of reduced-commodity free burn and full-scale sprinkler protection tests of cartoned lithium ion polymer batteries in rack storage.

Presented by:

Benjamin Ditch, FM Global
Benjamin Ditch is a Senior Research Engineer at FM Global and has a M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. He has 14 years of experience in fire hazard analysis and specialty fire protection system design and is responsible for the development and implementation of large-scale fire testing, including specialty hazards such as ignitable liquids and non-standard storage. Ben's current research interests include advanced fire suppression, pool fire dynamics, and physical scaling of fire protection systems.

Richard Long, Exponent, Inc.
Mr. Richard Long is a Principal Engineer with Exponent, Inc., and is a licensed Fire Protection Engineer in more than 20 states. He is a member of several NFPA committees and has been actively involved in the hazard assessment of li-ion batteries for the last 5 years.