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Characterization of closed-doors electrical cabinet fires in compartments
- Source :
- Fire Safety Journal, Fire Safety Journal, 2011, 46 (5), pp.243-253. ⟨10.1016/j.firesaf.2011.02.006⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2011
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2011.
-
Abstract
- An important cause of fire departure in industrial facilities is due to electrical origin and particularly to electrical cabinets. The investigation of such fires has been scarce up to now and has been investigated exclusively in the nuclear industry. The Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) conducted a large number of experiments involving electrical cabinets burning either under a calorimetric hood or inside a mechanically ventilated compartment to investigate this topic. Calorimetric hood experiments demonstrated that the most important parameter is the size of the vents of the cabinet and that the time to flashover depends on many factors and seems somewhat random with regard to the observable parameters. The influence of the compartment on the fire behavior depends on the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere of the cabinet and on the oxygen content in the compartment at the level of the inlet vent of the cabinet. The compartment strongly impacts the pyrolysis of the combustible, affecting the fire duration, but has a weak effect on the Heat Release Rate (HRR). Experiments were usually remarkably reproducible, opening the way to a phenomenological description of this type of fire. A semi-empirical model based on the coupled solution of ventilation limit and excess pyrolysate could then be developed. This model was introduced in a zone code, and an ad-hoc modeling of the fire extinction based on a critical surfacic mass loss rate is proposed. The major features of the compartment fire experiments such as characteristic HRR and fire duration could then be reproduced with acceptable error. The development of such a semi-empirical model is a common practice in fire safety engineering concerned with complex combustibles. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Subjects :
- Engineering
Radioprotection
Oxygen content
Fire protection
020209 energy
General Physics and Astronomy
020101 civil engineering
02 engineering and technology
Calorimetry
Fires
Semiempirical models
0201 civil engineering
Fire modeling
Electrical equipment
0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering
Arc flash
Doors
General Materials Science
Compartment fires
Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
Fire extinction
Flammability testing
[PHYS]Physics [physics]
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
Phenomenological description
Waste management
business.industry
Fire duration
Fire safety engineering
Electrical cabinet
General Chemistry
Mechanics
Inlet
Nuclear industry
Fire behavior
Mass loss rate
Coupled solution
Industrial facilities
Heat release rates
Experiments
business
Pyrolysis
Loss rate
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 03797112
- Volume :
- 46
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Fire Safety Journal
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c076bdbe5c303acad13fd5cace98818d