Evaluation of the Cables Types during the Fire Conditions in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

The relatively high dangerous thermal effects of electric cable in the Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) is the concern to study the cable insulation behavior during a fire accident. This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation for the thermal failure in different cables types of the standard main control room (MCR) in nuclear power plants. Evaluation of the effective parameters is carried out using (CFAST) zone fire modeling. The fire growth in a MCR, is modeled and simulated to determine the effect of thermal failure temperatures corresponding to cable functional failures. This is to develop realistic single point thermal failure thresholds and probability distributions for specific cable insulation types.The output data are assessed for the different cable insulation materials according to the specific thermal failure thresholds, as well as to develop the electrical cable thermal fragility distributions. The present results show the cable functionality interdependence on the external firing.