Combustion characteristics and heat release rate of vertical cable fire for sustainable energy system in an analogue underground compartment

Abstract

Nuclear power plant will be significant energy system for sustainable cities. The safety risk of the cable fire is an important issue for managing and operating a nuclear power plant. A simple and useful method to estimate the fire scale is urgently needed for safety management. In this work, experiment was conducted in a typical underground compartment of nuclear power plant, which primarily focused on safety monitoring and management of the vertically arranged cable. The burning characteristic of the cable was firstly measured by cone calorimeter. Then, full-scale experiment was conducted, in which the real-time heat release rate was recorded through mass variation and the real-time temperature beneath the ceiling was simultaneously measured by the thermocouples. A modified model to predict the real-time heat release rate of the vertical cable fire base on measured temperature beneath the ceiling was established and was then validated through the experimental result. It’s shown that the predicted heat release rate could well match with that measured in the experiment. The results of this work may provide guidance for the cable fire risk assessment and safety monitoring, and may also provide reference for underground nuclear power plant design and safety management.