Energy balance in a confined fire compartment to assess the heat release rate of an electrical cabinet fire

Characterisation of open-door electrical cabinet fires in compartments

“…Nevertheless, at the same time, the quantities integrated for the fire duration, for the electrical cabinet in a free atmosphere (PXA3 and PXA3b) are, on the other hand, reproducible (see Table 3, fuel mass loss and total energy release). In a ventilated confined environment, the behaviour of the cabinet fire shows satisfactory similarities from one test to the next, during all fire tests (see Table 3 and Table 4), like the heat release rate at the end of the incubation stage, the partial combustion of the available fuel, the fire duration during the fast spreading stage, the lower effective heat of combustion of about 50% compared to that in the free atmosphere (see also Coutin et al, 2012). Following the example of a cabinet fire in a free open atmosphere, the complex and random nature of the flame propagation on the elements of the cabinet can create an important statistical dispersion in terms of reproducibility (see Fig.…”

“…For each of the seven tests performed in the DIVA facility, the number of sensors varied from 647 to 733. Some of these measurements, together with the uncertainties of the sensors, are described in more detail in (Coutin et al, 2012). Among these, the cabinet side wall temperature, the mass loss rate of the cabinet, the volume flow rate through the ducts and leaks, the pressure in the fire room, the heat flux through the walls of the fire room and the gas temperature in the fire room are shown in (Coutin et al, 2012) for the PXV1 test.…”

“…As previously emphasised by Babrauskas and Peacock (1992), the heat release rate is the main parameter for assessing and understanding the consequences of a fire. Different methods can be used to determine the heat release rate: the "mechanical" method (Babrauskas and Grayson, 1996), based on the measure of mass loss rate, the "chemical" method (Babrauskas and Grayson, 1996;Coutin, 2007), based mainly on the measure of oxygen consumption by the fire source, or the "thermal" method (Hamins et al, 2008;Coutin et al, 2012) based on the thermal balance inside the fire compartment. In the free atmosphere, the heat release rate of the electrical cabinet fire was obtained by the "chemical" method (Coutin, 2007), whereas in the confined environment the "thermal" method was found to be the most adequate method to determine the heat release rate of the electrical cabinet fire (Coutin et al, 2012).…”

Recursive construction of output-context fuzzy systems for the condition monitoring of electrical hotspots based on infrared thermography

“…One of the causes of ignition is excessive ohmic heating in electrical distribution. The causes of excessive ohmic heating can be classified into gross overloads, excessive thermal insulation, stray currents, ground faults, overvoltage, and poor connections (Coutin et al, 2012). These conditions tend to occur in old buildings with outdated and deteriorating electrical wirings or electrical wirings that are inappropriately amended or insufficient for the electrical load.…”

Numerical Simulations of a Mechanically-Ventilated Multi- Compartment Fire

“…The first one is related to the characterization of several potential fire sources in a nuclear facility, such as liquid pools of Hydrogenated Tetra Propylene (HTP) (a solvent similar to Dodecane and used for reprocessing) [3] or electrical cabinets (made of transformers, circuit breakers, cable trays,…etc) [4]. Such characterization is first undertaken in free-burn conditions (i.e.…”