Abstract: During long-distance installation of cables in power system,changes of sag height can easily lead to cable bending.In order to investigate the combustion performance of multiple cables in close arrangement and bending installation.Taking cross-linked polyethylene insulated cable as the research object,parameters of flame temperature,flame spreading rate and burning time were analysised.Results indicated that as the number of cables laid increased,the peak flame temperature and flame spread rate gradually increased,and flame spread rate was proportional to the cable bending angle.When the number of cables laid was 5,and the downward bending angle was 90°,the fire spread rate reached 5.4 cm·min^-1,which was 1.9 times higher than that under horizontal cable conditions.The reason was that as the bending angle increased,the wall attachment effect and droplet flow effect of cables during combustion were more prominent,leading to an increase in thermal convection and radiation effects on the unburned cable section,which improved the spread rate of cable fires.