Characterisation of open-door electrical cabinet fires in compartments

Coutin, M.; Plumecocq, W.; Zavaleta, Pascal; Audouin, L.

doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2015.01.017

Cited by 8 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, the front panel of the FE was removed (as for the open‐door electrical cabinet) and a gravel‐packed gas burner 0.5 m × 0.5 m was located at its bottom. This last one provided a constant fire power of 300 kW for all the tests, which corresponds to one‐fourth of the maximum heat release rate of the studied open‐door cabinet 4 characterized in open atmosphere 6 . This, thus, allows to obtain the same fire power per unit volume for the reduced and real scales.…”

Section: Fire Test Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Furthermore, Zavaleta et al 4 studied the fire spread from an open‐door twin modules 400‐V electrotechnical cabinet to two adjacent closed‐door cabinets. The central open‐door cabinet, which can be found in French nuclear installations, was fully and previously characterized by Coutin 5 and Coutin et al 6 The main components inside the central cabinet were transformers, terminal blocks (TBs), motor circuit breakers and contactors, relays, circuit breakers, vertical trunkings, horizontal trunkings, and electric cables. A propane burner located at the bottom of the central cabinet was used to ignite it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This test device is composed of two adjacent steel enclosures separated by an air gap. The first enclosure, which contains a gas burner at its bottom, corresponds to a one‐quarter scale model of the open‐door electrical cabinet studied in previous works 4–6 . The second enclosure, which contains electrical components, considered as targets in this study, reproduces at reduced scale the ACs 4 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Electrical component ignition in a closed enclosure adjacent to a controlled fire

2019

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Summary Electrical cabinet fires are one of the main fire hazards in nuclear power plants (NPPs). The electrical cabinets are often arranged in rows of adjacent cabinets (ACs) in NPPs. So the ability of a cabinet fire to spread to ACs is a major concern for fire safety. This work aims to investigate the impact on the fire spread of the air gap between two electrical cabinets, the electrical component type contained in the AC, and its ventilation mode. For that purpose, a test device composed of two adjacent steel enclosures was designed in order to reproduce at reduced‐scale adjacent electrical cabinets. This study first reveals that the studied electrical component types spontaneously ignited when their temperature and the incident heat flux reach critical ignition values. These ignition criteria are assessed for each component type. The tests also show that the air gap increase slows down the rise of the side wall temperature of the two enclosures, which delays the ignition time of the electrical components. This work finally highlights that the mechanical ventilation of the adjacent enclosure (AE) has an impact on the ignition conditions. In contrast, the natural ventilation as implemented in the AE has a small effect on these conditions.

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Section: Fire Test Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Electrical component ignition in a closed enclosure adjacent to a controlled fire

2019

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“…The fire cabinets (Figure ) used for the four tests were the same twin modules 400‐V electro‐technical cabinet, as those previously studied by Coutin and Coutin et al These electrical cabinets, which can be found in French nuclear installations, were fully characterized in these previous experimental works. As part of this study, the electrical cabinets were implemented without door since this configuration is considered in fire safety analyses as the most critical fire scenario.…”

Section: Description Of the Fire Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coutin and Coutin et al performed 11 real cabinet fire tests. Four cabinet fires were carried out in open atmosphere conditions (under a large‐scale calorimeter), while seven fire tests were performed in a confined and mechanically ventilated facility.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire spread from an open‐doors electrical cabinet to neighboring targets in a confined and mechanically ventilated facility

2018

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Summary Electrical cabinet fire is one of the main fire hazards in nuclear power plants. As part of the OECD PRISME‐2 programme, four fire tests were carried out to investigate the fire spread from an open‐doors electrical cabinet to overhead cable trays and adjacent cabinets in a confined and mechanically ventilated facility. These tests, named CFS‐5 to CFS‐7 and CORE‐6, used same both cabinet (fire source) and three overhead cable trays. The trays were filled with a halogenated flame‐retardant cable‐type for CFS‐5 and one halogen‐free for the three other tests. Moreover, fire dampers were used for CFS‐7 test while CORE‐6 test implemented two additional cabinets adjacent to the fire source. Measurements such as flame and gas temperature, gas concentration, mass loss rate, and heat release rate were performed for investigating the fire spread. Cabinet fire spread to the cable trays for CFS‐5 and CFS‐6 tests. Three fast and short cable tray fires were shown for CFS‐5, while a slow and long cable tray fire was highlighted for CFS‐6. In contrast, the fire dampers shutdown for CFS‐7 test prevented ignition of the overhead cables. Furthermore, for CORE‐6 test, cabinet fire spread to the adjacent cabinets, but the upper cables were not ignited.

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Identification and characterization of design fires and particle emissions to be used in performance‐based fire design of nuclear facilities

et al. 2020

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Summary CERN operates one of the most complex particle accelerator facilities in the world. Several different hazards, including fires, are present and need to be investigated and reduced to a tolerable level. Toward this goal, CERN aims at developing a catalog containing detailed fire dynamics descriptions of combustible items present in its facilities. This paper contributes to this catalog in two ways. First, through the development of a design fire calculator for electrical cabinets that allows the determination of potential design fire curves for any number of electrical cabinets/racks. The second contribution was to experimentally characterize the smoke production rates and smoke particle properties of the most common cables and insulating oils used at CERN by coupling a fast particle mobility analyzer to a cone calorimeter. The two particle size modes (accumulation and nucleation mode) could be linked to the fire properties and heat release rate. Accumulation mode particles (~200 nm) were associated with high heat release rates and high soot emissions from the flame. This study identifies a necessity to consider ultrafine particle emissions with low mass emissions but high number emissions in relation to risk assessments pertaining to nuclear facilities and dispersion of radioactive aerosols to the surrounding environment.

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Characterisation of open-door electrical cabinet fires in compartments

Cited by 8 publications

References 14 publications

Electrical component ignition in a closed enclosure adjacent to a controlled fire

Electrical component ignition in a closed enclosure adjacent to a controlled fire

Fire spread from an open‐doors electrical cabinet to neighboring targets in a confined and mechanically ventilated facility

Identification and characterization of design fires and particle emissions to be used in performance‐based fire design of nuclear facilities

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