The effect of intumescent mat on post-fire performance of carbon fibre reinforced composites. (May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhu, Chenkai; Li, Jingjing; Clement, Mandy; Yi, Xiaosu; Rudd, Chris; Liu, Xiaoling
• Is Part Of: Journal of fire sciences. Volume 37:Number 3(2019:May)
• Page Start: 257
• Page End: 272
• Publication Date: 2019-05
• Subjects: Composites -- post-fire performance -- flame retardant -- intumescent mats; Flammable materials -- Periodicals; Combustion gases -- Toxicology -- Periodicals; Fireproofing -- Periodicals; 628.922
• DOI: 10.1177/0734904119849395
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0734-9041

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of intumescent mats (M1 and M2) with different compositions on the post-fire performance of carbon fibre reinforced composites. The sandwich structure was designed for composites where M1 (carbon fibre reinforced composite-M1) or M2 (carbon fibre reinforced composite-M2) mats were covered on the composite surface. A significant reduction in the peak heat release rate and total heat release was observed from the cone calorimetric data, and carbon fibre reinforced composite-M1 showed the lowest value of 148 kW/m 2 and 29 MJ/m 2 for peak heat release rate and total heat release, respectively. In addition, a minor influence on mechanical properties was observed due to the variation of composite thickness and resin volume in the composite. The post-fire properties of composite were characterised, and the M1 mat presented better retention of flexural strength and modulus. The feasibility of two-layer model was confirmed to predict the post-fire performance of composites and reduce the reliance on the large amounts of empirical data.