Performance Assessment of Passive Fire Protection Materials

The performance of fireproofing materials in providing effective protection from fire strongly depends on the thermo-physical properties and on the behavior of the material during fire exposure. Not only active insulators, but also non-active coatings may undergo significant changes in their structure and properties when exposed to high temperatures. The present study focused on the measurement of some key properties for a set of three reference fireproofing materials of different nature. The changes in morphology and in physical properties during fire exposure were investigated, and showed drastic changes in the case of active fireproofing materials. For these materials the time required to reach a steady condition in the heat transfer may be significant. The use of a simple heat transfer model, based on the experimental data obtained for the reference materials studied, demonstrated the importance of accounting for changes in the physical properties, paving the way to further applications in advanced studies of fireproofing performance in complex geometries and critical scenarios.