An experimental thermographic safety audit focusing on temperature rise vs load in electrical installations in a Bangladesh garments factory

Abstract

© 2017 IEEE. Thermographic scanning of electrical installations is sometimes conducted as part of electrical safety audits. This scanning is mostly considered based on the present temperature identified on a particular device or location and according to a pre-specified temperature category. But in most of the cases the recommended temperature of the particular devices cannot be considered during temperature categorization. There are many electrical audits using Thermographic scanning and recommend solution based on normal category of temperature rather than manufacturer's suggestion or specified standard for particular electrical device. Now a days, thermographic scanning is being used in Readymade Garments (RMG) industries in Bangladesh in such simple way where details analysis are not in practice and hence exact recommendation is absent in reports. The importance of this topic is focused on the 4.2 million people working in more than 5,000 factories in Bangladesh, where 80% of the fire incident are caused by inappropriate electrical installation or short circuits (as per Fire Service and Civil Defense statistics of Bangladesh). Recently many violent industrial accidents caused death of more than 1,500 people in the last 3 years. Among these, majority of the incidents were due to unsafe electrical system and inappropriate maintenance. The paper will further explore the importance of thermal scanning on electrical devices and compare the temperature considering manufacturer's recommendation for identifying system errors. The paper is written based on previously published recommendations and based on conducting an experimental sample audit aimed to develop a thermography based auditing standard. Based on the statistical and systematic analysis of the obtained data (e.g. temperature values, visual abnormalities, comparative differences) the paper will further discuss the possible area(s) that can be improved by introducing the thermal reports for the safety audits. This paper is aimed to develop an auditing structure proposed to implement identified areas within a standard electrical safety audit process.