Preventing cable fire accidents and ensuring the normal and stable operation of cables are necessary conditions for the safe and effective operation of power systems. XLPE insulated PVC sheathed (YJV) cables are widely put into operation. Therefore, It is of great significance to study the early fire warning of YJV cables. In this paper, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is used to analyze the heating and gas production characteristics of the outer sheath material of the cable, namely polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and explore the feasibility of early warning fire based on gas. A cable thermal fault simulation device was designed and produced to simulate different high temperature faults of PVC cables, and three kinds of gas sensors were selected to build a basic test circuit to explore the response of the sensors to the early fire of the cable. The research found that for the early fire detection of PVC cables, in addition to the isooctanol gas mentioned in the previous literature, carbon monoxide can also be selected as the characteristic gas for early fire detection. Besides, gas sensors have excellent response speed and response intensity to early fire response, and the response intensity is closely related to temperature.

Cable fire;XLPE Cable;Gas sensor