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Study of damageability of electrical cables in simulated fire environments. Final report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6439876· OSTI ID:6439876

In a fire accident in a facility, full trays of cables may be exposed to varying thermal environments. Cables may begin to melt, expand, disintegrate, and short circuit causing cable malfunction even before ignition occurs. The study investigates the damage processes that take place in a cable under varying thermal environments. Damageability in this study is defined as a change in the properties of a cable causing impairment to the normal function of the cable. To quantify the cable damage, insulation/jacket degradation, ignition, and electrical integrity failure were processes chosen to evaluate cable damage potential. For each of these three processes critical flux and critical energy parameters (expressed in terms of damage indices) are derived for expressing the damage potential of each cable. In addition, a preliminary study on HCl generation from three chlorine-containing cables was performed.

Research Organization:
Factory Mutual Research Corp., Norwood, MA (USA)
OSTI ID:
6439876
Report Number(s):
EPRI-NP-1767
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English