Analysis and testing of fibrous passive fire protection material for fireproofing of equipment units

Fire is one of the most frequent accident scenarios in process facilities and it may be responsible of severe escalation scenarios: flames and heat radiation can damage equipment units, support structures, and piping with consequent loss of containment of hazardous materials. Mitigation measures are acquiring increasing importance in the design of the facilities with the goal of reducing the probability of domino effect. Passive Fire Protection Materials (PFP), properly applied, contributes to the protection of industrial equipment against accidental fires. PFP delays the heating of the protected metal and vessel contents, allowing increased time for other mitigation measures. The present contribution focuses on the measurement and modeling of some key properties for the assessment of the performance of fiber fireproofing materials. The results of the experimental activities were used to develop heat transfer models in fire-like conditions applicable to Finite Element Modeling (FEM) simulations for advanced fire and safety analysis. Particular attention was devoted to the development of a unified model for effective thermal conductivity able to account for the role of operative conditions (temperature, deformation of the fireproofing, etc.). © Copyright 2014, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.