Life Safety and Fire Fighting Systems – The weakest hyperlink

Unlike different cables, fire resistant cables need to work even when immediately exposed to the fireplace to maintain important Life Safety and Fire Fighting tools working: Fire alarms, Emergency Lighting, Emergency Communication, Fire Sprinkler pumps, Fireman’s Lift sub-main, Smoke extraction fans, Smoke dampers, Stair pressurization fans, Emergency Generator circuits etc.
In order to categorise electric cables as fire resistant they are required to endure testing and certification. Perhaps the first common hearth checks on cables had been IEC 331: 1970 and later BS6387:1983 which adopted a gasoline ribbon burner check to produce a flame during which cables had been placed.
Since the revision of BS6387 in 1994 there have been eleven enhancements, revisions or new test standards launched by British Standards to be used and utility of Fire Resistant cables however none of those appear to deal with the core concern that fireplace resistant cables the place tested to widespread British and IEC flame check standards are not required to perform to the same hearth efficiency time-temperature profiles as every other construction, system or component in a building. Specifically, the place fireplace resistant buildings, methods, partitions, fire doorways, fire penetrations fire limitations, floors, walls and so forth. are required to be fireplace rated by building rules, they’re tested to the Standard Time Temperature protocol of BS476 elements 20 to 23 (also generally recognized as ISO834-1, ASNZS1530pt4, EN1363-1 and in America and Canada ASTM E119-75).
These tests are conducted in giant furnaces to copy real post flashover fireplace environments. Interestingly, Fire Resistant cable test standards like BS 6387CWZ, SS299, IEC 60331 BS8343-1 and 2, BS8491 only require cables to be exposed to a flame in air and to lower last test temperatures (than required by BS476 pts 20 to 23). Given Fire Resistant cables are likely to be exposed in the identical hearth, and are needed to make sure all Life Safety and Fire Fighting techniques stay operational, this truth is perhaps surprising.
Contrastingly in Germany, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada Fire Resistant cable techniques are required to be tested to the same fireplace Time Temperature protocol as all other constructing components and that is the Standard Time Temperature protocol to BS476pts 20-23, IS0 834-1, EN1363-1 or ASTM E119-75 in USA.
The committees creating the standard drew on the steerage given from the International Fire Prevention Congress held in London in July 1903 and the measurements of furnace temperatures made in lots of fireplace checks carried out in the UK, Germany and the United States. เกจวัดแรงดันน้ำ4หุน had been described in a collection of “Red Books” issued by the British Fire Prevention Committee after 1903 as properly as these from the German Royal Technical Research Laboratory. The finalization of the ASTM commonplace was closely influenced by Professor I.H. Woolson, a Consulting Engineer of the USA National Board of Fire Underwriters and Chairman of the NFPA committee in Fire Resistive Construction who had carried out many tests at Columbia University and Underwriters Laboratories in Chicago. The small time temperature differences between the International ISO 834-1 check as we know it at present and the America ASTM E119 / NFPA 251 exams doubtless stemmed from this time.
Image courtesy of MICC Ltd.
The curve as we see it at present (see graph above) has turn out to be the usual scale for measurement of fireplace check severity and has proved relevant for many above ground cellulosic buildings. When elements, buildings, parts or methods are tested, the furnace temperatures are managed to conform to the curve with a set allowable variance and consideration for initial ambient temperatures. The standards require parts to be examined in full scale and beneath situations of help and loading as outlined to have the ability to characterize as accurately as possible its functions in service.
This Standard Time Temperature testing protocol (see graph right) is adopted by virtually all international locations around the globe for fireplace testing and certification of just about all constructing structures, parts, techniques and elements with the interesting exception of fireplace resistant cables (exception in USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Belgium and New Zealand the place fireplace resistant cable methods are required to be tested and approved to the Standard Time Temperature protocol, identical to all other constructing buildings, parts and components).
It is essential to know that utility requirements from BS, IEC, ASNZS, DIN, UL etc. the place fireplace resistive cables are specified for use, are solely ‘minimum’ necessities. We know at present that fires are not all the same and analysis by Universities, Institutions and Authorities around the globe have identified that Underground and some Industrial environments can exhibit very completely different fire profiles to those in above ground cellulosic buildings. Specifically in confined underground public areas like Road and Rail Tunnels, Underground Shopping centers, Car Parks fire temperatures can exhibit a really quick rise time and can reach temperatures properly above these in above floor buildings and in far much less time. In USA today electrical wiring techniques are required by NFPA 502 (Road Tunnels, Bridges and different Limited Access Highways) to face up to hearth temperatures as much as 1,350 Degrees C for 60 minutes and UK British Standard BS8519:2010 clearly identifies underground public areas similar to car parks as “Areas of Special Risk” where more stringent test protocols for important electric cable circuits could need to be thought of by designers.
Standard Time Temperature curves (Europe and America) plotted towards frequent BS and IEC cable checks.
Of course all underground environments whether road, rail and pedestrian tunnels, or underground public environments like purchasing precincts, car parks and so forth. might exhibit totally different hearth profiles to those in above floor buildings as a outcome of In these environments the heat generated by any hearth can not escape as easily as it’d in above ground buildings thus relying more on heat and smoke extraction tools.
For Metros Road and Rail Tunnels, Hospitals, Health care services, Underground public environments like shopping precincts, Very High Rise, Theaters, Public Halls, Government buildings, Airports and so forth. this is significantly essential. Evacuation of those public environments is often slow even throughout emergencies, and it is our duty to ensure everyone seems to be given the easiest likelihood of secure egress during fireplace emergencies.
It can also be understood right now that copper Fire Resistant cables where put in in galvanized steel conduit can fail prematurely during fireplace emergency because of a reaction between the copper conductors and zinc galvanizing contained in the metallic conduit. In 2012 United Laboratories (UL®) in America eliminated all certification for Fire Resistive cables where put in in galvanized metal conduit for that reason:
UL® Quote: “A concern was delivered to our attention associated to the efficiency of those merchandise within the presence of zinc. We validated this discovering. As ส่วนประกอบpressuregauge of this, we changed our Guide Information to point that every one conduit and conduit fittings that are obtainable in contact with fireplace resistive cables ought to have an interior coating freed from zinc”.
Time temperature profile of tunnel fires utilizing automobiles, HGV trailers with totally different cargo and rail carriages. Graph extract: Haukur Ingason and Anders Lonnermark of the Swedish National Testing and Research Institute who presented the paper on the First International Symposium in Prague 2004: Safe and Reliable Tunnels.
It would seem that some Standards authorities around the globe could must evaluate the current test methodology at present adopted for fire resistive cable testing and maybe align the efficiency of Life Safety and Fire Fighting wiring techniques with that of all the other fireplace resistant constructions, parts and techniques in order that Architects, constructing designers and engineers know that after they want a fireplace rating that the important wiring system shall be equally rated.
For many energy, control, communication and knowledge circuits there is one technology out there which might meet and surpass all present fireplace tests and applications. It is a solution which is regularly used in demanding public buildings and has been employed reliably for over eighty years. MICC cable technology can provide a total and complete answer to all the issues related to the fire safety dangers of contemporary versatile organic polymer cables.
The steel jacket, magnesium oxide insulation and conductors of MICC cables ensure the cable is successfully fire proof. Bare MICC cables have no natural content material so merely cannot propagate flame or generate any smoke. The zero fuel-load of those MICC cables ensures no warmth is added to the fire and no oxygen is consumed. Being inorganic these MICC cables can not generate any halogen or poisonous gasses at all including Carbon Monoxide. MICC cable designs can meet the entire present and building fireplace resistance efficiency standards in all countries and are seeing a major increase in use globally.
Many engineers have previously thought of MICC cable expertise to be “old school’ however with the new research in fire efficiency MICC cable system at the moment are proven to have far superior fireplace performances than any of the newer extra modern flexible fire resistant cables.
For further information, go to www.temperature-house.com
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