A Study on the Identification of Electrical Materials by a Fire

화재로 인한 전기재료 감식에 관한 연구

Over the last 100 years since the introduction of electricity, the nation has faced ever increasing demand for electricity as consequence of the rapid economic growth. The expanded consumption ratio for electricity naturally increased the possibility for electricity related accident mainly iii the form of electrically ignited fire and human injuries from electric shock. Under such circumstances, the presented study sets a focus on analysing the causes of the electrically related fire accidents happened in the nation over the last 10 years(in the 80's) to provide a scientific basis for identifying the cause of electric fires. Identification of the cause of fire ignited electrically may be approached either by studying accident related electrical properties or by investigating power instruments at the place of the accient. In the present paper, the former approach is taken especially on investigating the consequences of over current induced by short circuiting of high power instruments which is reported as the primary cause electricity related fire accidents. In order to provide reliability of the identification method, microscopic photograph's are taken for the cross sections of the electrical materials(fuse, wire, plug socket and plug) after being exposed to over current and heated by external means respectively. The results are consequently compared and analysed.