The Wet Short Circuit Test provides an assessment of the ability of an insulation to prevent damage in an electrical arc environment. In service, electrical arcs may originate from a variety of factors including insulation deterioration, faulty installation, and chafing. It has been documented that results of an arc-propagation testing may vary slightly due to the method of arc initiation. Therefore, a standard test method must be selected to evaluate the general arc-propagation resistance characteristics of an insulation. This test method initiates an arc with droplets of saline solution. The arc-propagation resistance is defined by the length of arc-propagation damage along the wires and by the extent of damage to all adjacent wires undamaged by the water droplets.
This test method differs from SAE and other methodologies in the following ways:
- This test method can be applied to wire gauges 26 – 8 AWG.
- This test method can be applied to both copper wire and copper-clad aluminum wire.
- This test is performed on an slightly inclined plane.
- All wires in the test harness are connected to the power source or neutral(e.g.: there are no floating wires).
- A standard test battery consists of 18 trials, with a maximum elapsed test time of 2-hours.