The use of fire‐retardant intumescent mats for fire and heat protection of glass fibre‐reinforced polyester composites: Thermal barrier properties

Abstract

SUMMARYThis study investigates the use of integral, hybrid intumescent thermal barriers (mats) to provide surface protection to the core fibre-reinforced polyester composite structural integrity when exposed to a fire or heat source. Glass fibre-reinforced composites protected by intumescent mats/fabrics containing silicate fibres, expandable graphite and in some cases borosilicate glass bounded together by an organic matrix have been evaluated for fire performance under a constant heat flux of 50 kW/m 2 . The effect of insulative fabric thickness as well as chemical composition on the flammability of the resultant hybrid composites is evaluated. Glass fibre-reinforced polyester (GRP) composites without any surface protection have a relatively higher time-to-ignition and peak heat release rate values when compared with core composites protected by insulative fabrics. Thermograms representing the variation of temperature on the reverse side of the hybrid composites with time when exposed to a constant heat flux show that the inclusion of intumescent surface barriers results in retarded temperature increments within the core GRP composites.

The effect of fire‐retardant additives and a surface insulative fabric on fire performance and mechanical property retention of polyester composites

“…The fire performance of surface-insulated and fire-retarded composites is superior to that of the control composite (P) or the composites that contain additives alone. The use of insulative fabrics purely as surface barriers (with no infused resin) produced better fire resistance for GRP core composites than observed otherwise in our previous work published elsewhere when the surface layer was infused with resin in order to have a consolidated structural composite [12].…”

“…Previous work in our laboratories has shown that the use of fire retardants in resin formulations leads to the formation of residual char network following the decomposition of the resin matrix [1,4,5,14,15]. Recently, we have shown success in the use of insulative fabrics to improve the fire performance of polyesterbased composites [12]. The effect of fire-retardant additives and the insulative fabric on the mechanical property retention after heat exposure has been studied herein.…”

“…Furthermore, the porous char network formed is capable of trapping the combustible volatiles, thus reducing the fuel feed into the combustion zone and hence the heat release from the material. In our previous work [12], we have explored with success the use of intumescent mats of various thicknesses to provide heat protection to fibre-reinforced composites. The fire-retardant mat containing man-made vitreous fibres (MMVF), silicate, exfoliating graphite, an organic binder together with borosilicate glass of thickness 0.5 mm was found to be the most efficient showing the highest char expansion; hence, it has been chosen for this study.…”

“…While these composites have some advantages over the conventional materials, when combusted they produce large volumes of smoke and toxic fumes that may impede the escape of victims or cause health problems to both the victims and the fire servicemen. Various methods of improving the fire resistance of composites include the use of fire-retardant additives [4,5], ceramic [6] or intumescent paints/coatings [7,8], and more recently polymer nanocomposites [9]. Most often fire-retardant additives are introduced into resin formulations to improve the fire performance of the resultant composite.…”

Grafted 2‐chloroethylphosphonic acid on inorganic supports used as flame retardant for unsaturated polyester resins

“…The use of integral, hybrid intumescent thermal barriers to provide surface protection to the core fiber-reinforced polyester composite structural integrity when exposed to a fire or heat source was also investigated [19]. Glass fiber-reinforced composites protected by intumescent mats/fabrics containing silicate fibers, expandable graphite and in some cases borosilicate glass bounded together by an organic matrix have been evaluated for fire performance under a constant heat flux of 50 kW/m 2 .…”