Citation

Zavaleta P, Suard S. Fire Safety J. 2023; 140: e103872.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.firesaf.2023.103872

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Electrical cabinet-related fire events are among the most recorded fire events in nuclear power plants. As part of the OECD PRISME-3 project, four fire tests were carried out to highlight the fire spread paths from an open-door electrical cabinet (CC) to two adjacent closed-door electrical cabinets (ACs). The cabinets, separated by a double wall with an air gap, were connected by overhead and subfloor cable trays. These last ones were filled with either a "low" or "well-qualified" (LQ or WQ, respectively) cable type. Each cable type was used for two tests. In addition, tests were conducted either in open atmosphere conditions (two) or in confined and mechanically ventilated conditions (two). These tests highlighted three fire spread paths from the CC to the ACs. Regarding the first one through the double wall with an air gap, several ignitions of electrical components (used as targets) occurred in the ACs when the wall temperature near the ignited target exceeded 600 °C (or the heat flux incident to the target was higher than 26 kW/m2) whatever the test conditions. Furthermore, the two other fire spread paths through the overhead and subfloor cable trays were highlighted only if the LQ cable type was used.

Language: en

Keywords

Air gap; Electrical cabinet; Fire spread; Overhead cable tray; Subfloor cable tray; Target ignition