Performance of fire protective coatings on structural steel member exposed to high temperature

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of fire protective materials in protecting steel section. A new indexing system is introduced, named as fire endurance index (FEI), which can be used to evaluate the performance of fire protective materials.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, experiments were carried out using W4 × 13 steel section. Eight samples were prepared; one was a bare steel section without any coating material, and seven were prepared using four types of materials such as vermiculite-gypsum plaster, gypsum plaster, concrete cover and glass wool-concrete cover for fireproofing of the sections. An enclosed electric coiled furnace was used for heating the samples for a certain period. The duration of protection was determined, and the FEI of the materials was calculated. The higher the index value is, the better the performance.

Findings

The results demonstrate that the glass-wool-concrete cover offered the best performance at high temperature among the four types of materials. In the experiment with glass-wool-concrete cover, the furnace temperature reached 750°C, whereas the steel temperature reached only 100°C. The FEI of the coatings were calculated. Among the eight samples, glass wool-concrete cover also achieved the highest index value.

Research limitations/implications

The experimental work was performed using a limited number of specimens. Furthermore, the robustness of the indexing system needs to be evaluated with other materials and a wide range of heating rate and temperature. This study sets the foundation for future work.

Practical implications

The findings of this research may contribute to a better understanding of the performance of the materials used as fire protective coatings. This might be helpful for the researchers and practitioners in their design and implementation of legislation of fire safety codes.

Social implications

Understanding the performance of the fire protective coatings will help in evaluating the fire resistance capabilities of the materials to use for the structural steel members, which may protect collapses and disasters of buildings.

Originality/value

This paper deals with the performance of four types of materials, that can be used as fire protective coatings for structural steel members. Furthermore, the FEI explicitly indicated their performance with numerical values. In this study, the heating of the specimens was performed using a non-standard fire curve based on the concept that naturally occurring incidents of fire do not follow the standard fire curves.

Citation

Mahmud, H.M.I., Mandal, A., Nag, S. and Moinuddin, K.A.M. (2021), "Performance of fire protective coatings on structural steel member exposed to high temperature", Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 193-211. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSFE-07-2020-0025