Fire Behavior of Electrical Installations in Buildings

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 23; p. 6433
• Main Authors: Fangrat, Jadwiga, Kaczorek-Chrobak, Katarzyna, Papis, Bartłomiej K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2020
• Subjects: Building construction; Buildings; Burning; Cables; Ceilings; Combustion; Construction materials; Electrical installations; Electricity distribution; fire behavior of electrical installation; Fire load; fire properties of cables; Fire protection; Fire safety; Flammability; Heat release rate; heat release rate of electrical installation; Heat transfer; High temperature effects; Installation; Polyvinyl chloride; Research methodology; SBI test; Smoke; smoke release rate of electrical installations; Test methods; Europe
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en13236433

Electrical installations are a significant component of fire load inside a building, although they are often neglected in the overall fire safety analysis and are not subjected to any kind of fire safety evaluation of a building. A typical electrical installation unconnected to the mains was experimentally studied using a single burning item (SBI) test apparatus, fixed to two types of popular non-combustible or combustible (wooden-based) backgrounds simulating a typical building internal wall or ceiling. The semi-real scale test showed that poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) cable, commonly used in installations in buildings in Europe and used in SBI tests, showed high fire properties related to heat release, smoke production and flame spread to other interior elements. The results of the electrical circuit connected to the main measurements carried out showed a significant impact of the heating effect towards the uncovered surface socket, causing the possibility of easy ignition inside the installation. In conclusion, it was found that even a relatively simple and short section of electrical installation resulted in a significant increase in the heat release rate and smoke generation parameters, obtained during the SBI tests, and as a consequence a reduction of one or two reaction to fire euroclasses of construction materials for internal walls.