Citation

Zeng D, Wang Y, Boardman D. Fire Mater. 2021; 45(3): 345-354.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/fam.2793

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Flame retardant cable coatings are applied to grouped electrical cables as a passive protection means to reduce the fire hazard. This work studied the flammability of cable coatings and developed a fire test method to evaluate the fire propagation propensity of grouped cables protected by cable coatings. Firstly, ignition tests of 12 cable coatings were conducted and showed that all cable coatings are ignitable. Secondly, three selected cable coatings and a cable bandage, as an alternative passive protection method, were evaluated along with two types of electrical cables in ASTM E-2058/ISO 12136 by measuring the fire propagation index (FPI). The FPI values of coated cables do not demonstrate a monotonous change relative to the FPI of uncoated cables, and the FPI trend is cable dependent. Thirdly, two selected cable coatings and a cable bandage were further examined in the 2.4-m parallel panel fire test (PPT) along with an electrical cable with an FPI value of 30 (m/s1/2)/(kW/m)2/3. The cables coated by both tested cable coatings showed fire propagation while the bandaged cables did not propagate. The consistent fire propagation propensities between the PPT and small-scale fire tests support using the FPA tests to examine the flammability of cable coatings.

Language: en

Keywords

cable coating; fire propagation; fire propagation apparatus; fire propagation index; parallel panel test