1. Post-fire Structural Integrity of Composite Gratings for Offshore Platforms
Fire Resistance and Fire Reaction of Bio-Composite Sandwiches for Building Construction P. Di Modica1*, A. D. La Rosa2, G. Cicala2, G. Kotsikos1 and A.G. Gibson Centre for Composite Materials Engineering, School of Mechanical & Systems Engineering, Newcastle University, Stephenson Building, Claremont Rd., Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK. 2 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. * address of the corresponding author :
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2. Contents Background Method Materials Results and discussion
Conclusions
Future work
ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

3. Background
Composites fire behaviour is what limits or drives their applications.
Composites with good fire performance are usually produced from non renewable resources such as phenolic resins or other modified resins.
Bio-composites are starting to become viable options in some applications such as passive fire protection materials in the off- shore platforms or for building construction.
Each application has its own related fire regulation to comply with.
The aimed final application of the bio-composites developed in this study is for non load bearing walls in the building construction industry.
ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

4. Background Fire related standard
EN (which standard for which application)
EN contains the fire classification criteria of construction products and building elements;
EN 1363
EN contains the furnace performances to be used for fire resistance assessment and the required fire performances of the material;
EN 1364
EN contains the fire resistance requirements for non load bearing walls;
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5. EN1363-1 FURNACE REQUIREMENTS
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6. EN1363-1 FURNACE REQUIREMENTS
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7. EN1363-1 FIRE RESISTANCE Insulation threshold:
The TIME in complete minutes for which the test specimen continues to maintain its separating function during the test without the unexposed face developing a temperature increase higher than 140K compared to the initial temperature.
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8. Method
Comparison between cone calorimetry and fire resistance test results for better understanding the fire behaviour
35 kW/m2 heat flux was chosen for the tests because the theoretical cone calorimeter maximum heat flux is 100 kW/m2
Small scale propane burner technique was used for fire testing for 30 minutes with a flame temperature of 670 °C
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9. Method Cone calorimetry test (ISO 5660)
Sandwich samples were monitored with thermocouples on both hot and cold face.
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10. Method Small-scale propane burner technique
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11. Burnthrough Dimension [mm]
Materials
PVC
Cork
Balsa
Material
Burnthrough Dimension [mm]
Cone dimension [mm]
Balsa sandwich
200 x 200 x20
100 x 100 x 20
PVC sandwich
Cork sandwich
Balsa core
PVC core
TEK Cork core*
EKO Cork core*
bio-epoxy-flax fibre skin
* EKO cork core was characterised by bigger particles, more porous, than the TEK one.
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12. Results: Burnthrough
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13. Flames passed through the sample before achieving the condition
Results : Burnthrough
Material
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Average
Skin
237
Balsa core
133
PVC core
Flames passed through the sample before achieving the condition
TEK Cork core
EKO Cork core
Cork sandwich
1061
925
1276
1087
Balsa sandwich
606*
616*
871*
697*
PVC sandwich
905
1046
894
948
Synergistic effect of the SDWC structured compared to individual material performance.
* Balsa SDWCs were affected by CF initial debonding; the best result is the one with less visible debonding. which is aligned with the worst PVC SDWC.
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14. Results: Cone
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15. Results: Cone Cork sandwich Balsa sandwich PVC sandwich Time [s] 931
Cork sandwich
Balsa sandwich
PVC sandwich
Time [s]
931
778
688
SDWC PVC
SDW BALSA
SDWC CORK
PVC
BALSA
CORK TEK
CORK EKO
SKIN
Initial mass [g]
121.67
131.50
130.37
8.00
17.00
25.00
26.00
55.10
Final mass [g]
9.19
10.90
63.06
1.39
2.59
0.99
7.47
3.42
Final mass [%]
7.55
8.29
48.37
17.42
15.22
3.98
28.73
6.21
Synergistic effect of the SDWC structured compared to individual material performance.
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16. Discussion Fire tests:
The composite skin is beneficial to avoid early flame penetration;
It exists a synergistic effect of the SDWC structure compared to single components performance;
With exception of PVC SDWC all the other materials were not self-extinguishing
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17. Discussion Cone tests:
Hot face temperature of the cone tests matches flame temperature of corresponding fire tests heat flux
All the SDWC HRR were characterised by three peaks most likely associated the single components peak of HRR
Higher residue corresponds to better fire performance
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18. Overall Conclusions Balsa may be affected by poor skin-core bond
Both tests suggest that the cork core SDWC was the best performing SDWC followed by PVC and Balsa despite different cold face boundary conditions
Balsa may be affected by poor skin-core bond
Work needs to be done in regard to self- extinguishing properties
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19. Future work
Residue analyses will be carried out to characterise the char morphology and better understand the differences in fire performances
Further tests are necessary at the standard heat flux for final fire assessment of building construction applications
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20. EU FIRE-RESIST PARTNERSHIP
Acknowledgments
EU FIRE-RESIST PARTNERSHIP
To develop new concepts for composite materials that are both lightweight and fire-resisting.
MATRECO
FIRE-RESIST
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21. Thanks for your attention.
Questions?
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