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This proposal involves collaborative research between academics at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and the University of Strathclyde (UoS). The primary aim of the project is to apply a cross-disciplinary approach to address the problem of acquiring essential information for diagnostics of on-line condition monitoring of cable insulation on the basis of partial discharge (PD) activity. This will be achieved by developing modern data mining techniques to acquire knowledge directly from on-line, data rich, condition monitoring systems. Analysis of on-line information from applied systems will be supported and validated through extensive, dedicated experiments carried out both in the laboratory environment as well as in practical power distribution systems. Failures in the power distribution network are costly to the operators and they are also a serious issue for consumers, who experience power cuts and disruption to their business and social activities during repairs. If techniques for establishing scientifically the condition of cable insulation and its performance are not developed, similar disruption and excessive cost can result from unnecessary replacement of cable assets on the basis of planned maintenance based purely on age. This proposed research programme will build on three areas in which the investigators have internationally recognised expertise: firstly, measuring and discriminating signal characteristics from high power plant, secondly, determining degradation in oil/paper insulation systems and, thirdly, applying software to determine knowledge entrained in raw data. This programme of research will significantly benefit from the knowledge gained from two recently funded EPSRC projects at GCU and UoS (EP/D048133 and GR/86760) as well as recently completed industrially funded projects. In addition to the academic strengths of the proposers, a very substantial industrial contribution is being provided by EDF Energy: a 30,000 direct cash injection and strong in-kind contribution, i.e. cable samples, unlimited access to data from its on-line condition monitoring systems and to fault/condition reports from its replacement programme as well as access to practical expertise of its staff. Further support from Cable manufacturing company Prysmian Cables and Systems Limited (20,000 in kind), Dow Chemical and PD based condition monitoring equipment provider IPEC Ltd (8,000 in-kind) will ensure breadth of validity of the research and broaden the scope of the project by investigating a range of plant types and set-ups and to ensure more general applicability of the research.

Unwanted fires continue to account for a significant loss of life, damage to property, damage to business and damage to the environment. Meanwhile the cost of prevention and protection measures adds a substantial drain to an already struggling economy. The cost of fire is almost 1% of GDP while the cost of fire safety measures for a new building is around 2.5%. The action required to prevent such losses is expensive and may involve inappropriate or unnecessary measures. To address specific threats, such as fires in public buildings, or resulting from terrorism it is essential to improve our understanding of the behaviour of unwanted fires particularly the transition to under-ventilated flaming and the rapid increase in toxicity. Most fire deaths and most fire injuries actually result from inhalation of toxic gases. If reliable means of predicting toxic product yields in real-scale fires were developed, lives could be saved and costs reduced. Combustion toxicity is generally underestimated in small-scale tests, and is highly dependent on fire conditions. The project will quantify combustion toxicity using the unique design of the steady state tube furnace (SSTF) (ISO TS 19700), which allows full-scale fire behaviour, under different fire conditions, to be replicated on a small scale. Crucially, it will also use UCLan's new custom-designed Large Instrumented Fire Enclosure (LIFE) facility based at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's Training Centre to investigate the relationship between scales as a function of temperature and ventilation condition. This apparatus is based on a half-scale ISO 9705 room with corridor, as a reference scenario for generation of toxic products from fire, in order to validate bench-scale (ISO 19700) data for use in engineering hazard calculations, and provide crucial information on the behaviour of under-ventilated fires. The outcomes of the work have direct relevance to the fire safety engineering community (in order to predict escape times based on fire toxicity and visual obscuration) while understanding the transition to highly toxic, under-ventilated fires will save lives, and reduce costs. It will also provide materials scientists with the tools to optimise products for lower fire toxicity suitable for high risk application such as mass transport or high rise buildings.