Cable Heat Release, Ignition, and Spread in Tray Installations during Fire (CHRISTIFIRE): Phase 1 - Horizontal Trays

Published

July 11, 2012

Author(s)

Kevin B. McGrattan, Andrew J. Lock, Nathan D. Marsh, Marc R. Nyden

Abstract

This report documents the first phase of a multi-year program called CHRISTIFIRE (Cable Heat Release, Ignition, and Spread in Tray Installations during Fire). The overall goal of the program is to quantify the burning characteristics of grouped electrical cables. The first phase of the program focuses on horizontal tray configurations. The experiments conducted range from micro-scale, in which very small (5 mg) samples of cable materials were burned in a calorimeter to determine their heat of combustion and other properties; to full-scale, in which horizontal, ladder-back trays loaded with varying amounts of cable were burned under a large oxygen-depletion calorimeter. Other experiments include cone calorimetry, smoke and effluent characterization in a small test furnace, and intermediate-scale calorimetry involving a single tray of cables underneath a bank of radiant panels. The results of the small-scale experiments are to serve as input data for fire models; while the results of the full-scale experiments are to serve as validation data for the models.

Citation

Contractor Report, NUREG/CR-7010

Pub Type

Others

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Keywords

Electrical Cable Fires, Fire Modeling

Citation

McGrattan, K. , Lock, A. , Marsh, N. and Nyden, M. (2012), Cable Heat Release, Ignition, and Spread in Tray Installations during Fire (CHRISTIFIRE): Phase 1 - Horizontal Trays, Contractor Report, NUREG/CR-7010, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=905788 (Accessed October 13, 2025)