Kinetic study of pyrolysis of typical high-voltage power cable

Cable sheath pyrolysis plays an important part of the cable combustion process. In order to evaluate the pyrolysis performance of high-voltage power cables, thermogravimetric (TG) experiments are performed on a typical high voltage cable sheath in a nitrogen atmosphere. The pyrolysis kinetic parameters are calculated by FAS, FWO, Starink, and the pyrolytic stability is analyzed. The results show that cable pyrolysis is mainly divide into two stages. The apparent activation energies are 61.89 kJ/mol, 59.84 kJ/mol, and 60.73 kJ/mol in first stage those of the second stage are 120.69 kJ/mol, 117.11 kJ/mol, 118.44 kJ/mol, which means that the sheath material is more difficult to pyrolyze in the second stage.