A Comparison Of Fabric Arc Ratings And The Performance Of Arc Rated Clothing Exposed To Arc Flashes Generated Using Ac And Dc Energy Sources

The predominance of DC energy sources (e.g. electric vehicles, photovoltaic power generation, uninterruptable power systems, etc.) is growing rapidly throughout the world. As such, workers in a variety of industries are being faced with a growing risk of exposure to arc flashes generated from these DC sources. However, all Standard Test Methods for determining arc ratings of products are based solely on AC energy, leaving a large unknown in the protective properties of all types of arcrated clothing. In this paper, the arc ratings of various fabrics are identified and compared using both traditional AC open air arc rating methodologies and novel DC testing methodologies. Further, various commercially available arc rated garments were exposed to both AC and DC arcs to study the differences of full garment response to the two types of arcs. With a clearer understanding of the different reaction and protective performance values, best practices and updates to various international standards are proposed to ensure worker safety when dealing with the rapidly growing risk of arc flashes from DC energy sources. The arcs used in this study were open air, vertical electrode arcs. Other arcing techniques including box arc, ejected arc, and other electrode configurations were not employed in this study.