The Fire Performance of Aged Electrical Cables

Conference · Sun Aug 11 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5826576

Nowlen, S. P. ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sandia National Laboratories has performed a series of experiments under the sponsorship of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) to assess the fire performance of thermally aged electrical cables. Two measures of fire performance were evaluated, namely, (1) the vulnerability of cables to thermal damage and (2) the flammability of cables. In each case, direct comparisons were made between experiments involving unaged (i.e., new off the reel) cables and cables subjected to accelerated thermal aging. The results were evaluated from the perspective of fire risk. It was found that thermal aging did cause changes in the thermal damageability of the cables tested; however, the changes observed are not considered risk significant. Large-scale fire tests demonstrated a clear decrease in material flammability due to thermal aging. Thus, it was concluded that the use of cable thermal damage and flammability information based on the testing of unaged cable samples is an acceptable risk assessment practice. Indeed, in the case of flammability, this is a conservative practice.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5826576
• Report Number(s): SAND--91-0963C; CONF-910831--2; ON: DE91012650
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220200* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Components & Accessories
220900 -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
AGING
CABLES
COMBUSTION PROPERTIES
CONDUCTOR DEVICES
DATA
ELECTRIC CABLES
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL INSULATION
EQUIPMENT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FIRE HAZARDS
FIRES
FLAMMABILITY
HAZARDS
INFORMATION
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
NUMERICAL DATA
POWER PLANTS
REACTOR SAFETY
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SAFETY
THERMAL DEGRADATION
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
VULNERABILITY