Fire Resistance Evaluation of Pressed Straw Building Envelopes

Abstract

Ecological construction has a tendency to increase. One of its directions is the straw bale-house. The safety of such buildings is based on increasing the fire resistance of pressed straw panels. In order to increase the fire resistance of such panels, they are plastered with a clay-lime mixture, treated with flame retardants and antipyrenes. The protective equipment effect on the fire resistance is not fully understood. Therefore, the work considers evaluation issues of the fire resistance in pressed straw building envelopes, depending on the plaster layer thickness, the straw pressing density and the flame retardants treatment. The study found that with a panel thickness of 450 mm, the straw density in the range of 110-140 kg/m3, clay plaster thickness of 30 mm ensure integrity, insulating and load-carrying capacity. The temperature on the panel rear side did not exceed 67 °C. The pressed straw density has almost no effect on the panel fire resistance. Antipyrenes treatment improves flammability from 18% to 37-42% that makes it possible to classify the samples as hardly combustible materials.