ROC MEETING MINUTES

NFPA 75 Technical Committee on Electronic Computer Systems

Thursday-Friday April 14-15, 2011 Doubletree Hotel, Dallas, TX

1. Call to Order

The meeting of the Technical Committee on Electronic Computer Systems at the Doubletree

Hotel in Dallas was called to order by Chair, Ralph Transue at 8:00 am on Thursday, April 14,

2011.

2. Introduction of Committee Members and Guests

Self introductions of members and guests were completed. Those present are indicated below:

Name Representing

Transue, Ralph-Chair The RJA Group, Inc.

Spataro, Joseph A.-Secretary Liberty Mutual Property

Carman, Timothy-Principal Tyco Fire Suppression & Building Products

Crowder, Vincent-Principal Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company

Deegan, Thomas-Principal The Viking Group, Inc.

Kaufman, Stanley-Principal CableSafe, Inc./OFS

Lang, Scott R.-Principal Honeywell International

Langer, Robert L.-Principal Amerex Corporation

Marts, Ronald-Principal Telcordia Technologies

McCluer, Stephen-Principal APC by Schneider Electric

Pikula, Robert M.-Principal Reliable Fire Equipment Company

Powell, Bryan K.-Principal XL Global Asset Protection Services

Puig, Richard-Alternate to B. Bischoff Fike Corporation

Quirk, David V.-Principal Verizon Wireless

Salwan, Sam P.-Principal Environmental Systems Design, Inc.

Schwartz, William T.-Alternate to J. Spataro Liberty Mutual Property

Suski, Mark-Principal Aon/Schirmer Engineering Corporation

Willard, Randy-Principal US Central Intelligence Agency

Wysocki, Thomas J.-Principal Guardian Services, Inc.

Zolotar, David-Principal Oracle America, Inc.

Bielen, Richard-NFPA Staff Liaison National Fire Protection Association

Hart, Jonathan R.-NFPA Staff Liaison National Fire Protection Association DeGiorgio, Vincent-Guest FM Global

Rivers, Paul-Guest 3M

Robin, Mark L.-Guest Dupont

Joseph, Steven-Guest

Tokarsky, E.-Guest Dupont

3. Announcements

NFPA Staff briefly reviewed the purpose of the meeting and NFPA’s procedures. Jonathan Hart was

introduced as the new Staff Liaison for the committee. Key dates were published in the

meeting notice as:

Dates for ROC Meeting April 11-13, 2011 Ballots Mailed to TC before May 20, 2011 ROC Published August 26, 2011 Intent to Make a Motion Closing (NITMAM) October 21, 2011 Issuance of Consent Document (No NITMAMs) December 13, 2011 NFPA Annual Meeting (Las Vegas) June 2012 Issuance of Document with NITMAM August 9, 2012

4. Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the July 13-14, 2010 ROP Meeting held at Rolf Jensen & Associates

headquarters in Chicago, IL were approved without changes.

5. Task Group Reports

Ralph Transue reported on NFPA 75/76 convergence issues, and NFPA 75 correlation

issues related to language in article 645 of the National Electrical Code. Ralph reviewed the

evolution of Chapter 10 of NFPA 75 starting from requirements in NFPA 75 for power shutdown

with the NEC picking up the “How To” by creating Article 645, a permissive section in NFPA

70, and eventually NFPA 75 extracting pertinent paragraphs from NFPA 70 (NEC) Article 645

with citation. The NFPA 70 Code Making Panel 12 created a Task Group to re-examine the

requirements found in Article 645 soliciting input from NFPA 75.

Dave Quirk presented extensive work on a task group studying HVAC air containment

systems. This was supported by an animated PowerPoint presentation. HVAC airflow

containment products were researched during 20+ conference calls over 3 months. The

objective of air containment is to save energy and to maintain proper temperature conditions

at the inlet to the equipment. ASHRAE TC9.9 guidelines were referenced for control of air

flow, temperature, and humidity in both the hot aisle and the cold aisle using collar

containment systems. Air containment systems are not plenums; they are part of the

equipment. The task group worked on fire prevention, detection, suppression, and response.

Vinnie DeGiorgio gave a presentation on increased use of combustible plastics in data

centers. These are being used in cable ducts, and the partitions used in air containment

systems, resulting in an increased fuel load in equipment spaces. Server rack fire behavior

would be a good topic for research. What are the ignition source and the combustible load?

Fire spread, smoke generation, risk tolerance (redundant location) and the effects of out-

gassing caused by exposure of plastics to elevated temperatures over time could also be

examined.

6. Action on Comments

The committee acted upon the 29 public comments that were received and created 5 additional

committee comments. Refer to the F2011 Report on Comments (ROC) for the specific actions

taken on each.

7. Old Business

There was no old business.

8. New Business

After action had been taken on each of the public and committee comments, the committee

discussed many issues that may be more closely examined and researched prior to the next

revision cycle of NFPA 75. It was determined that it may be useful for members to act as liaisons

with other committees including Code Making Panel 12 of the NEC, and the ones responsible for

applicable sections of NFPA 2001, NFPA 13, NFPA 72, and others that may be related.

Task Groups may need to be formed to address the following topics:

a) Risk assessment with exemplars in Annex or create a performance based chapter similar

to NFPA 76.

b) Take a fresh look at correlation with the NEC Article 645.

c) Determine enhancements that could be made in requirements related to the development

and use of risk assessments including consideration of the SFPE method for performance-

based analysis and solutions. This would include review of under floor combustibles and

protection requirements.

Some of the topics which the committee feels may be useful to undergo further research include

the following:

a) Return air monitoring for smoke detection.

b) The effectiveness of automatic methods for removing obstructions (specifically those

created by aisle containment) prior to suppression system operation.

c) Equipment (fan) airflow direction effect on agent concentrations for suppression within

obstructed areas.

d) Smoke detection and related threshold for fire size (“large” facility), technology (detector

type), and fire products.

e) Maximum fire size to be expected in such facilities.

f) Relations to NFPA 2001.

g) Literature review to find pertinent statistics as to what starts a fire in IT equipment, what

the initial materials are and other feature that can help to provide a risk informed design

process.

h) Determining test criteria that includes a consideration of the increased use of plastics.

i) HVAC control/shut-down, how this can best be required and what effects this will have

in possible thermal overloads through unintended shutdowns.

9. Adjournment

The NFPA 75 ROC meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm.

Air Containment Task Group Report

NFPA75 ROC

NFPA76 ROC

April 2011

Dallas, Texas

2

NFPA 75 & 76 ROP ActionsJoint Task Group on Air Containment

Task Group Objectives

Task Group Participants and Efforts

Air Containment Systems 101Purpose of them

Industry drivers

Types and configurations

Topics CoveredPlenum Issue

Fire Resistance & Materials

Suppression

Detection

Other topics (detachable links, etc)

Overview

3

• Review FIRE PROTECTION risks, potential hazards,

the application, and general fire safety requirements

associated with HVAC airflow containment products and

strategies that are installed in Data Centers and

Telecommunications facilities. Perform a review of

existing published literature on the topic.

• Recommend necessary research to NFPA and FPRF to

uncover unknown or uncertain aspects related to the

above review.

• Develop proposals that provide a MINIMUM level of fire

protection in accordance with the scope of each

Standard, necessary to minimize risks associated with

fire and the associated loss of services and/or

information.

Task Group Objectives

Task Group Attendance

Participants Representation Affiliations Voting Present

David Quirk (chair) End User NFPA76 & ASHRAE

TC9.9

Alt

Stephen McCluer

(co-chair)

End User NFPA 75 Y

Ron Marts Consultant NFPA 76/75 Y

Jeff Betz End User NFPA 76 Y

Brian Rawson OEM NFPA 75 Y

Bob Pikula FP manufacturer NFPA 76/75 Y

Ralph Transue Consultant NFPA 76/75 Y

Charles Quillin

Darrell Franchuk

Insurance NFPA 76 Y

Steve Dryden Consultant NFPA 76 Y

Vincent Degiorgio Insurance NFPA 76 Y

Bob Rex

Scott Lang

FP Manufacturer NFPA 76 Y

Wayne Aho Manufacturer NFPA 75 Y

Jonathan Ingram FP manufacturer NFPA 76 Y

Tom Wysocki FP manufacturer NFPA75 Y

Potential non-committee representatives from containment manufacturing

Max Hibner Containment

Manufacturer

ASHRAE TC9.9 N

Rich Kluge Consultant NBrian Donahue

Dave LuciaContainment

Manufacturer

N

Paul Rivers FP manufacturer N

Dan Dahl Consultant

4

Task Group Stats:

19 participants

9 – NFPA76

7 – NFPA75

5 – General industry

All stakeholders

represented

ASHRAE

represented

20 conference calls

Airflow containment solutions are used by HVAC and

Information & Communication Technology (ICT)

professionals to reduce the unintended mixing of HVAC

cooling airflows to serve the following performance

objectives: Ensure proper entering air conditions on ICT hardware in accordance

with ASHRAE TC9.9, Thermal Guidelines (www.ashrae.org) or directly

(http://www.techstreet.com/cgi-

bin/browsePublisher?publisher_id=33&subgroup_id=34767)

Elevate return air temperatures at the HVAC equipment, which drives

up system Coefficient Of Performance (COP) / increases energy

efficiency, thereby reducing energy consumption and associated costs.

Elevate return air temperatures at the HVAC equipment, to permit

additional hours of economizer operation (compressor free cooling),

thereby reducing energy consumption and associated costs.

Containment is commonly separated into 1 of 2 categories: Hot aisle

containment OR cold aisle containment.5

HVAC Air Containment 101

6

Data Center• Raised Floor Air Distribution

• Hot/Cold Aisle Cooling Environment

• Higher power densities

• Server-Centric hardware - AC

powered

Telecom• Overhead Air Distribution

• Mixed Cooling Environment

• Lower power densities

• Variety of network equipment that are

low voltage DC powered

CR

AC

Eq

uip

.

Eq

uip

.

FR

Cable Racks

F R

HVAC Air Containment 101

CR

AC

Dropped Ceiling

Equip

.

Equip

.

RR F F

7

Underfloor

Cold aisle containment

Overhead

Cold aisle containment

HV

AC

ICT

Equip

.

HVAC Air Containment 101

HV

AC

Dropped Ceiling

ICT

Equip

.

8

Underfloor

Hot aisle containment

Overhead

Hot aisle containment

HV

AC

ICT

Equip

.

HVAC Air Containment 101

HV

AC

Dropped Ceiling

ICT

Equip

.

9

Underfloor

“hot collar” containment

Overhead

“hot collar” containment

HV

AC

ICT

Equip

.

HVAC Air Containment 101

HV

AC

Dropped Ceiling

ICT

Equip

.

10

Examples

Hot Air Collars Blanking plates to

prevent recirculation

airflow

11

Examples

Curtains

Contained hot aisle with in-row cooling

Air re-circulated at the floor level only

Air flow, top viewHot air is trapped under

Ceiling tiles

Cooling units in row with

ICTE equipment

Examples

13

Air Containment – Items reviewed

PREVENTION•Materials of construction

•Listings, combustibility, flammability, etc

•Plenums issue

DETECTION

•Detector locations

•Response times

•Temperatures on detectors

SUPPRESSION

•Obstructions for sprinklers

•Gas concentrations

•Removable obstructions

RESPONSE

• Impact to detection response

• Impact on suppression response

• Ability to find fire for first responders

Increasing Use of   C b tibl Pl ti iCombustible Plastics in             Worldwide Data CentersWorldwide Data Centers

March 2011March 2011

Vinnie DeGiorgioVinnie DeGiorgioPrincipal Engineer

FM Global

The Graduate ‐ 1967The Graduate  1967

Types of Combustible PlasticsTypes of Combustible Plastics

• Rigidg– PVC, lexan (polycarbonate), plexiglass (PMAA), polyethylene and polypropylene 

• Flexible– PVC polyurethane kynarPVC, polyurethane, kynar

• Foam– Polyurethane– Elastomeric RubberNeoprene rubber– Neoprene rubber

Properties of Combustible Plastics•Heat Release Rate

– 2‐3 times > ordinary•Toxic Gases

– hydrogen cyanide, HCL,2 3 times > ordinary combustibles

•Burning Rate

hydrogen cyanide, HCL, phosgene

•Flaming Drips•Burning Rate– 10 times > ordinary 

combustibles

•Flaming Drips– thermoplastics tend to 

melt & flow when heated

•Smoke Produced– Very dense, sooty, black 

•Corrosion– severe corrosion damage 

smoke potential to sensitive electronic equipment & metal surfaces

ASTM E84 – Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials (UL 723)Characteristics of Building Materials (UL 723)

• 24ft. long x 20 in. wide specimens exposed tospecimens exposed to controlled –88 kw methane flame–240 ft. /min air flow

•Flame spread, fuel contribution & smoke arecontribution & smoke are measured• Flame spread is pobserved through windows

ASTM E84 – Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials (UL 723)Characteristics of Building Materials (UL 723)

Provides a comparative measurement of surface flame spread & smoke density measurementspread & smoke density measurement

Per ASTM E84 – Standard Test Method for Surface B i Ch t i ti f B ildi M t i l (UL 723)Burning Characteristics of Building Materials (UL 723)

• Does not provide the effect of aggravated flameDoes not provide the effect of aggravated flame spread behavior of an assembly resulting from the proximity to walls and ceiling (x, 2x, 4x)p y g ( , , )

• Testing materials that melt drip or delaminate to• Testing materials that melt, drip or delaminate to such a degree that the continuity of the flame front is interruptedfront is interrupted– Results in low flame spread & smoke density measurements

Cables(Data Center Equipment Room) 

CablesUnder Raised Floor

Cable Flammability 

Cable Flammability 

Fiber Optic Raceways/Routing Assemblies

Cables Trays

Hot/Cold Aisle ContainmentHot/Cold Aisle Containment

Hot/Cold Aisle ContainmentHot/Cold Aisle Containment

Hot/Cold Aisle ContainmentHot/Cold Aisle Containment

Hot/Cold Aisle ContainmentHot/Cold Aisle Containment

Computer Room Air Conditioning ( )(CRAC) Units

Acoustical foam insulation inside

Chilled Water PipingData Center

ASTM E84Flame Spread = 25 Data CenterpSmoke Developed = 50

FM4910 ‐ Fire Propagation Index = 6.6   FM4910 ‐ Smoke Development Index = 0.35

In Row Cooling Data CenterData Center

Combustible Foam Insulation

Chilled Water Distribution UnitData CenterData Center

C b ibl FCombustible Foam Insulation

Foam Insulation – Under Raised Floor      Data CenterData Center