Arc Flash Studies
Arc Flash Studies
I agree in that cal/cm2 is the standard today, since studies and PPE are selected that way. Joules was adopted because they wanted to have metric and US system, so cal/cm2 is metric and joules from the US system. Anyway, we all use the cal/cm2 for incident energy and for other measurements in the US they use inches and so forth.
1) SKM I believe it is the best option for engineers.
2) I believe most of the data should be given by the company; it just makes sense since they know their system better. The vendor should tell them what they need, maybe using a spreadsheet with all electrical equipment fields needed to perform study.
3) Reports are presented in a way that allows the company to take actions. One part of the report explains the findings, such as incident energy levels per bus, another part of the report gives reengineering suggestions to bring down those levels and both of the reports include the PPE (personal protective equipment) suggestions per bus. I prefer this to be reviewed by Oberon Company (manufacturer of PPE) or a knowledgeable distributor or consultant of them, since they know the products better and can give you suggestions based on their tested layering systems and BIRG ? (Burn Injury Reduction Guide) data, which is unique to their PPE and protective systems. Remember that the ATPV (arc thermal Protection Value) of the suits, is based on a 50% probability of enough energy going through the material (textile or shield) to cause a second degree burn, so only knowing the other probabilities, don to 1% you would be able to choose the safest PPE.
4) I am in Mexico, but I know that most companies outside the US, that decide to adopt this standard, do that because most Occupational Health and Safety departments/ministries, etc. have some safety standard that states that the employer should perform a hazard assessment and provide adequate PPE to the employee. This can only be accomplished in the electrical safety field, by implementing NFPA 70E, since there is no similar standard in the entire world.
Good luck with your studies and have fun, plenty of new issues will arise, and it is great, because we all need to realize about the importance of electrical safety and protect our workers correctly. We have been with our eyes closed for too long, is time to take action; Prevent instead of Healing.