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Effect of overload current values on the fire characteristics of polyethylene (PE) copper wires

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Abstract

The fire characteristics of polyethylene (PE) copper wire was investigated using cone calorimetry. The analysis focused on the effect of overload failure and external heat flux on its fire behavior. The mechanism of thermal oxidation of PE insulation by metal cores under overload failure was theoretically analyzed. The time-to-ignition (TTI), heat release rate (HRR), gas emission and mass loss of PE wires were measured. The results show that the TTI and the peak heat release rate (pHRR) are lowest for the 80 A overload current value compared to the 0–70 A overload current value. This is related to the complete thermal degradation behavior of the PE insulation subjected to the Joule heating of the metal core. The thermal thick and thin models of overloaded wires under different current values were verified theoretically and experimentally. As the overloaded wires burn, a peak in HRR occurs, and as the external heat flux increases, the time to reach pHRR decreases, but the peak intensity increases. The fire performance index (FPI) and fire growth index (FGI) of the overloaded wires were also calculated, and the FPI and FGI were minimized when the overload current value was 80 A. Finally, the gas emissions, residues and mass losses of the overloaded wires were analyzed. This work contributes to the understanding of the differences in fire characteristics of overloaded PE copper wires.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 5207042336) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province [No. E2021507002]. The authors gratefully acknowledge all these supports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Safety Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, 710054, Shaanxi, China

    Jun Deng, Qingwen Lin & Caiping Wang

  2. Forensic Science Institute, China People’s Police University, Langfang, 065000, Hebei, China

    Yang Li, Huaibin Wang & Pengrui Man

  3. State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Huaibin Wang

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  1. Jun Deng
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  2. Qingwen Lin
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  3. Yang Li
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  5. Huaibin Wang
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  6. Pengrui Man
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Contributions

Data collection was performed by JD. Data analysis was performed by CPW, HBW, YL and PRM. The manuscript was written by QWL. All authors discussed the results.

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Correspondence to Yang Li.

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Deng, J., Lin, Q., Li, Y. et al. Effect of overload current values on the fire characteristics of polyethylene (PE) copper wires. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 11695–11705 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12522-5

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