In Russia, a third of all fires annually occur from the electrical equipment. One of the first places in the fire statistics is occupied by the switchboards and their components.
For the purpose to optimize the use of fire protection measures, it becomes quite obvious and appropriate to use the requirements of the technical regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union on a risk-oriented approach when developing methods for assessing and ensuring fire safety of the electrical products.
For solving this problem, the publications of the International Electrotechnical Commission are focused on a qualitative analysis of the risk of a fire emergence, while in Russia a quantitative risk assessment in the electrical products is used by determining the likelihood of a fire emergence, and for an object — and damage from it. It is shown that for the switchboards it is advisable to combine qualitative and quantitative fire risk analyzes. For this, it is proposed, on the basis of a qualitative risk analysis, the provisions of which are presented in DS/IEC TR 63054:2017, to establish connections between the events that contribute to the fire emergence in the switchboards according to the electrical circuit, and taking into account the failure rates of the component elements in accordance with GOST 12.1.004—91 determine the probabilities of failure and ignition of the elements, as well as the resulting probability of a fire emergence from the switchboard. An example of the use of qualitative analysis for risk assessment is an experimental assessment of the possibility of emergence and propagation of combustion in a two-section switchboard, based on the results of which the practical recommendations are given.
Practical implementation of the provisions set forth in the article will allow to justify the need for additional fire protection measures (modification of the product) or their sufficiency, and thereby reduce the number of fires from the switchgears.
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