Improved model for estimating sidewall effect on the fire heat release rate of horizontal cable tray

Abstract

The occurrence rate of fire events involved with cables is high and a fire hazard analysis is needed. A cable tray may be commonly placed on a wall. The fire hazards of multiple cable trays are affected by the supporting wall to give a higher maximum heat release rate. Taking the wall constraint effect on cable burning into account, a new model for the fire heat release rate of a cable tray fire against a sidewall is developed based on small scale (cone calorimeter) measurements. The newly developed model introduces a constant m to reflect the acceleration in cable burning due to the sidewall. With a properly chosen value of m, the results obtained using the newly developed model agree well with the experimental data. The error in the peak fire heat release rate value is considerably smaller than those of other models. This work improves the understanding of the fire risk of a cable tray with a sidewall.