Laboratory-scale screening of intumescent coatings
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Intumescent coatings are used to improve the fire resistance of constructional steel. Fire resistance of intumescent coatings is normally assessed in large test furnaces, which is expensive and time-consuming. In the coating development phase, fast, cheap, and reliable test methods are needed to identify suitable coating formulations. In this work, a laboratory-scale screening test method, utilizing a small electric furnace, was developed. Temperature and heat flux measurements were performed to verify that the furnace conditions were similar to those in full-scale test furnaces. A simple heat transfer model was used to predict the coating performance over a wide range of steel section factors and coating thicknesses. To evaluate the method, 11 commercial coatings, from 6 coating manufacturers, were tested. Samples consisted of 3 mm thick steel panels with a coating thickness in the range of 0.7-3 mm. For coatings with a low to medium expansion factor (<50), the predicted performance agreed well with results based on full-scale fire resistance tests for circular hollow sections. For coatings with a high expansion factor (>50), the performance was typically overpredicted, likely because the method cannot foresee problems related to crack formation in the char caused by the curvature of circular hollow sections.
Source: Fire Safety Journal
Institution: Technical University of Denmark
Language: English
Subfield: Civil and Structural Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,770
Funder: Hempel Fonden
OpenAlex ID: W4410878602