"Performance based methodologies are becoming increasingly common in fire safety due to the inability of prescriptive codes to account for every architectural feature. Fire Sprinkler suppression systems have long been used to provide property protection and enhance life safety. However, very few methodologies exist to account for the impact of sprinkler sprays on fire scenarios. Current methods are extremely complicated and difficult to use as an engineering tool for performance based design. Twenty four full scale fire tests were conducted at Tyco Fire Suppression & Building Products Global Technology Center to determine a simple method for accounting for the impact of a single residential sprinkler on fire induced doorway flows. It was found that a spraying sprinkler reduced the mass flows at the doorway while maintaining two stratified layers away from the sprinkler spray. The mass flow reduction was consistent and could be predicted through the use of a simple buoyancy based equation. The current study suggests that the buoyancy equation can be altered through the use of a constant cooling coefficient (equal to 0.84 for a Tyco LFII (TY2234) sprinkler) based on the test results reported in this paper. This study is a proof of concept and the results suggest the methodology can be applicable to similar situations."

Increasing surface pressure buildup levels and surface venting flow rates on intermediate wellbore casing strings provided an opportunity to analyze wellbore field data to determine a distribution of leakage path permeability values. The gas leakage source in the leaky wellbore originated at depth, and formation gas/fluid traveled along defects in the cement to accumulate at the surface wellhead. The most likely pathway is the cement interface with casing or formation. Due to uncertainty about the location of the leak, and the different methods that were used for calculating leakage parameter values, a range of leakage path permeability values was produced. Most leakage pathway permeability values were greater than intact cement permeability (few microdarcies). This finding supports the practice of using cement filled annuli to provide a safe protective barrier against leakage and to prevent gas flow to surface. Proper cementing techniques are presented in order to identify possible reasons for cracks to form. It is hypothesized that the higher permeability values are a result of cracks in the cement interface with the casing or formation. These types of defects could also be found in wellbores that are in communication with CO2 sequestration reservoirs. The risk of leakage along such existing wellbores associated with CO2 sequestration projects is quantified by the distribution of leakage path permeability. The gas migration path through existing leaky wellbores is an analog for wellbores that are in contact with migrating CO2 plumes. Cracks in the leaky wellbores provide a highly permeable conduit for CO2 to migrate out of the injection zone to the surface. By quantifying leakage path permeability, proper leakage risk assessment can be further developed. / text