SUMMARYThe fire performance of two electric cables (building wires) designed for indoor use has been tested, both as new products and after accelerated thermooxidative ageing. The cables were aged for a maximum time of 16.5 weeks at 80 • C. The cables are commercially available, and were constructed using a PVC material in one case and a non-halogenated polyolefin-based material, called Casico, in the other. The effects of ageing on the fire performance of the cables, and the chemical changes that have caused the observed fire behaviour, have been investigated and are discussed. Special attention is paid to the behaviour of the plasticizers that are used in the PVC cable, and how the fire behaviour is affected by the loss of plasticizers from the cable and by the migration of plasticizers between the parts of the cable (insulation, bedding and sheathing).

SUMMARYA novel life-cycle assessment (LCA) model has been developed for the investigation of the environmental impact of the choice of material in cable production. In the first application polyolefin based material and PVC material is used. In both cases equivalent fire behaviour is assumed and a fire model is established based on existing fire statistics. This study represents the second full application of the fire-LCA model.In this paper the new 'cables fire-LCA' model will be presented together with the results of this first application. Aspects such as end-of-life scenarios, fire statistics, and fire scenarios and large scale fire performance of cables are discussed together with details of the straw LCA model defined for cables and the results of four different end-of-life scenarios.

No abstract