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. Gibson1 1 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. *e-mail address of the corresponding author : pietro.di-modica@ncl.ac.uk. ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

Contents Background Method Materials Results and discussion Conclusions Future work ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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

Background Fire related standard EN 13501 (which standard for which application) EN13501-1 contains the fire classification criteria of construction products and building elements; EN 1363 EN 1363-1 contains the furnace performances to be used for fire resistance assessment and the required fire performances of the material; EN 1364 EN1364-1 contains the fire resistance requirements for non load bearing walls; ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

EN1363-1 FURNACE REQUIREMENTS ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

EN1363-1 FURNACE REQUIREMENTS ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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. ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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 ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

Method Cone calorimetry test (ISO 5660) Sandwich samples were monitored with thermocouples on both hot and cold face. ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

Method Small-scale propane burner technique ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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. ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

Results: Burnthrough ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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. ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

Results: Cone ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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. ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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 ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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 ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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 ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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 ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

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 ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015

Thanks for your attention. Questions? ICNF15 São Miguel, Portugal, 27 – 29 May 2015