Fire Risk of Halogen-Free Electrical Cable

Abstract

This paper deals with the fire risk of a selected halogen-free electrical cable. The research was objected to a three-core power electric cable for a fixed installation CHKE J3x1.5 (cross section of each copper core was 1.5 mm 2 ) with a declared class of reaction to fire B2ca, s1, d1, a1. The electrical cable was manufactured and supplied by VUKI, a. s., Slovakia. The fire risk of the electric cable was evaluated based on the heat release rate, total heat release, smoke release rate, total smoke release and effective heat of combustion. These parameters were measured using a cone calorimeter at 50 kW m -2 (specimens and cone emitter were placed horizontally during the test). The measured electrical cable showed a maximum heat release rate of nearly 150 kW m -2 , a maximum average heat emission rate of almost 100 kW m -2 , a total heat release of almost 130 MJ m -2 , a maximum smoke release rate of almost 2.5 s -1 , a total smoke release of more than 800 m 2 m -2 , an effective heat of combustion (cable as a whole) of nearly 9 MJ kg -1 and an effective heat of emission (polymeric parts of the cable) of 26.5 MJ kg -1 .