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Module 5 · Hydraulic Calculations

Hydraulic Calculations

The density/area method, remote area selection, Hazen-Williams friction loss, and how a hydraulic calculation proves — with real numbers, not assumptions — that a sprinkler system's water supply actually meets its required demand.

A sprinkler system's design isn't finished once the system type and layout from Module 4 are chosen — it still has to be proven, with a full hydraulic calculation, that the water supply can actually deliver the required density over the required area at the hydraulically most demanding point in the building. This module works through the density/area method, how the remote area is selected, the Hazen-Williams friction loss formula that governs pipe sizing, and how the resulting demand point is checked against a real, flow-tested water supply curve.

By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a hydraulic calculation is a falsifiable, checkable claim rather than a formality, and why selecting the wrong remote area or using an outdated water supply curve can produce a calculation that looks complete while leaving the system's true worst case under-supplied — a distinction Module 7's fire pump sizing depends on directly.

Free related reading in this studio
→ Sprinkler Hydraulics Calculator (NFPA 13)→ NFPA 13 Sprinkler Hydraulic Calculation Simulator→ Concept Explainer: Design Density vs. Design Area

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