Fire Protection, Life Safety and Physical Security

Detection, suppression, egress, battery fire risk and security for data centers.

DCE-440 Year 4 3 credits 12 lessons · 6 h 2 min

Offered by HSM University · Data Center Engineering

This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.

What you'll learn

  • Identify the model codes and NFPA standards that govern data centers in the US, classify occupancies, and apply fire compartmentation, firestopping, power disconnection and egress requirements
  • Explain fire chemistry, heat release rate and t-squared growth, estimate fuel loads and flashover, describe smoke and corrosion damage, and carry out a fire risk assessment
  • Explain fire development and detector types, adjust detection for high airflow, design aspirating smoke detection, and define staged alarm responses and system integration
  • Describe fire alarm system architecture and signals, design audible and visible notification for noisy data halls, coordinate alarm and clean agent release sequences, and prepare a fire safety plan
  • Compare wet, dry and pre-action sprinklers and clean agent and water mist systems, calculate clean agent quantities, and apply enclosure integrity, pressure relief and safety requirements
  • Calculate sprinkler discharge, friction loss and system demand for a pre-action design area, compare demand with a water supply curve, and select a fire pump
  • Explain lithium-ion thermal runaway, off-gas and explosion hazards, the relevant standards and tests, and the layers of protection for battery rooms and rack-level batteries
  • Explain how electrical faults cause fires, interpret thermographic surveys, reduce arc flash incident energy, and provide and separate life safety power
  • Design layered physical security with access control, mantraps, surveillance, perimeter protection and procedures, and explain the audits customers rely on
  • Engineer access control, video and intrusion detection systems, analyze security logs, and manage the cyber-physical risks of networked building systems
  • Plan inspection, testing and maintenance programs, relate test intervals to reliability, conduct integrated testing, and manage impairments and hot work
  • Apply performance-based design with design fire scenarios and ASET and RSET analysis, and develop an integrated fire, life safety and security strategy for a data center

Course content

12 lessons · 6 h 2 min total · final exam

  1. 1 NFPA 75, NFPA 76 and building codes 28 min · quiz
  2. 2 Fire dynamics and risk assessment 32 min · quiz
  3. 3 Detection and early warning 29 min · quiz
  4. 4 Fire alarm systems, notification and emergency planning 33 min · quiz
  5. 5 Sprinklers, pre-action and clean agents 30 min · quiz
  6. 6 Sprinkler hydraulics, water supplies and fire pumps 35 min · quiz
  7. 7 Lithium-ion battery fire hazards 29 min · quiz
  8. 8 Electrical fire risk, arc flash and life safety power 29 min · quiz
  9. 9 Physical security and access control 32 min · quiz
  10. 10 Security systems engineering and cyber-physical risk 28 min · quiz
  11. 11 Inspection, testing, maintenance and impairments 27 min · quiz
  12. 12 Performance-based design and a fire and security strategy project 30 min · quiz
  13. E Final exam 20 questions

Requirements

Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.

Description

Detection, suppression, egress, battery fire risk and security for data centers.

Part of the Engineering stream, typically taken in year 4.