Experimental study on the fire protection properties of PVC sheath for old and new cables

The objective of the present study is to analyze the fire protection properties of old and new cables through TG, FTIR and MCC experiments. The results show that the mass loss of old cable sheath is clearly larger than the new one when the temperature is higher than 550 K in air or nitrogen atmosphere. It suggests that the old cable sheath starts to pyrolyze generally at the same temperature based on the analysis of the onset temperatures of mass loss. The results also show that there is a main peak DTG for the old and new cable sheath under each condition. However, the main peak DTG of old cable sheath is larger than that of the new cable sheath, especially in air atmosphere. The FTIR experiments show that the HCI is released by the new cable later but more quickly than the old cable. The MCC experiments suggest that compared with the new one, the peak heat release rate is larger for the old cable. It illustrates that the old cable sheath generally pyrolyzes and combusts more strongly and completely than the new one. Namely, the fire protection properties of the old cable in old buildings are relatively weak. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.