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Polymers
Special Issues
Fire and Polymeric Materials/Systems Response in Building and Construction Industry
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Fire and Polymeric Materials/Systems Response in Building and Construction Industry

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Physics and Theory".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021) | Viewed by 10636

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Aravind Dasari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Materials Science and Engineering (Blk. N4.1), Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639789, Singapore
Interests: polymeric materials; coatings; fire retardancy; mass engineered timber; composites; fracture; tribology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to the reasons associated with ‘construction productivity’ and ‘aesthetics’ among others, the Building and Construction Industry is one of the major consumers of ‘combustible’ polymeric materials and mass engineered timber. Their usage can be in the formwork, partition walls, façade systems, electrical wiring, insulation foams, coatings, or even the structural elements, etc. Therefore, improving the fire retardancy and resistance of building elements is critical to prevent life as well as economic losses. Even with the advanced steel-based constructions, as the yield strength of steel reduces drastically at temperatures over 500oC, it is again critical to protect these structural steel elements. As many different international standards govern the performance of the materials used for wide variety of applications in this industry, it is also important to move the emphasis beyond the traditional materials-scale characterization. This conclusion is also validated by considering the recent ‘unfortunate’ incidents associated with building fires. 

Therefore, this special issue will be a timely collection of the latest developments in the design, synthesis/processing, characterization, modeling, and performance evaluation of flame/fire retardant materials in the building and construction industry. It offers a great opportunity for researchers/scientists and engineers in this field to present their viewpoints and latest advancements. The topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

  • Synthesis of novel flame retardants
  • Flame retardant polymeric systems and/or composites/nanocomposites
  • Fire protective coatings
  • Composite panels and foams
  • Standards versus materials or systems viewpoint in this sector
  • Durability aspects of the flame/fire retardant materials
  • Multi-scale approach (experimental or modelling)

Prof. Aravind Dasari
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • combustion
  • flame retardant
  • polymer coatings
  • cone calorimeter
  • furnace tests
  • ISO 834
  • fire curves
  • smoke suppression
  • fire safety standards in building and construction
  • multi-scale

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3962 KiB  
Article
Investigation of Fire Protection Performance and Mechanical Properties of Thin-Ply Bio-Epoxy Composites
by Xiaoye Cong, Pooria Khalili, Chenkai Zhu, Saihua Li, Jingjing Li, Chris Rudd and Xiaoling Liu
Polymers 2021, 13(5), 731; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13050731 - 27 Feb 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2510
Abstract
Hybrid composites composed of bio-based thin-ply carbon fibre prepreg and flame-retardant mats (E20MI) have been produced to investigate the effects of laminate design on their fire protection performance and mechanical properties. These flame-retardant mats rely primarily on expandable graphite, mineral wool and glass [...] Read more.
Hybrid composites composed of bio-based thin-ply carbon fibre prepreg and flame-retardant mats (E20MI) have been produced to investigate the effects of laminate design on their fire protection performance and mechanical properties. These flame-retardant mats rely primarily on expandable graphite, mineral wool and glass fibre to generate a thermal barrier that releases incombustible gasses and protects the underlying material. A flame retardant (FR) mat is incorporated into the carbon fibre bio-based polymeric laminate and the relationship between the fire protection properties and mechanical properties is investigated. Hybrid composite laminates containing FR mats either at the exterior surfaces or embedded 2-plies deep have been tested by the limited oxygen index (LOI), vertical burning test and cone calorimetry. The addition of the surface or embedded E20MI flame retardant mats resulted in an improvement from a base line of 33.1% to 47.5% and 45.8%, respectively. All laminates passed the vertical burning test standard of FAR 25.853. Cone calorimeter data revealed an increase in the time to ignition (TTI) for the hybrid composites containing the FR mat, while the peak of heat release rate (PHRR) and total heat release (TTR) were greatly reduced. Furthermore, the maximum average rate of heat emission (MARHE) values indicated that both composites with flame retardant mats had achieved the requirements of EN 45545-2. However, the tensile strengths of laminates with surface or embedded flame-retardant mats were reduced from 1215.94 MPa to 885.92 MPa and 975.48 MPa, respectively. Similarly, the bending strength was reduced from 836.41 MPa to 767.03 MPa and 811.36 MPa, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire and Polymeric Materials/Systems Response in Building and Construction Industry)
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19 pages, 5173 KiB  
Article
Correlating the Performance of a Fire-Retardant Coating across Different Scales of Testing
by Yan Hao Ng, Indraneel Suhas Zope, Aravind Dasari and Kang Hai Tan
Polymers 2020, 12(10), 2271; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12102271 - 2 Oct 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3477
Abstract
Material-scale tests involving milligrams of samples are used to optimize fire-retardant coating formulations, but actual applications of these coatings require them to be assessed with structural-scale fire tests. This significant difference in the scale of testing (milligrams to kilograms of sample) raises many [...] Read more.
Material-scale tests involving milligrams of samples are used to optimize fire-retardant coating formulations, but actual applications of these coatings require them to be assessed with structural-scale fire tests. This significant difference in the scale of testing (milligrams to kilograms of sample) raises many questions on the relations between the inherent flammability and thermal characteristics of the coating materials and their “performance” at the structural scale. Moreover, the expected “performance” requirements and the definition of “performance” varies at different scales. In this regard, the pathway is not established when designing and formulating fire-retardant coatings for structural steel sections or members. This manuscript explores the fundamental relationships across different scales of testing with the help of a fire-protective system based on acrylic resin with a typical combination of intumescent additives, viz. ammonium polyphosphate, pentaerythritol, and expandable graphite. One of the main outcomes of this work dictates that higher heat release rate values and larger amounts of material participating in the pyrolysis process per unit time will result in a rapid rise in steel substrate temperature. This information is very useful in the design and development of generic fire-retardant coatings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire and Polymeric Materials/Systems Response in Building and Construction Industry)
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20 pages, 4825 KiB  
Article
Numerical Simulation of Coupled Pyrolysis and Combustion Reactions with Directly Measured Fire Properties
by Khalid Moinuddin, Qazi Samia Razzaque and Ananya Thomas
Polymers 2020, 12(9), 2075; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12092075 - 12 Sep 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3952
Abstract
In this study, numerical simulations of coupled solid-phase reactions (pyrolysis) and gas-phase reaction (combustion) were conducted. During a fire, both charring and non-charring materials undergo a pyrolysis as well as a combustion reaction. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based fire model (Fire Dynamics [...] Read more.
In this study, numerical simulations of coupled solid-phase reactions (pyrolysis) and gas-phase reaction (combustion) were conducted. During a fire, both charring and non-charring materials undergo a pyrolysis as well as a combustion reaction. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based fire model (Fire Dynamics Simulator, FDS version 6.2) was used for simulating the PMMA (non-charring), pine (charring), wool (charring) and cotton (charring) flaming fire experiments conducted with a cone calorimeter at 50 and 30 kW/m2 irradiance. The inputs of chemical kinetics and the heat of reaction were obtained from sample mass change and enthalpy data in TGA and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests and the flammability parameters were obtained from cone calorimeter experiments. An iso-conversional analytical model was used to obtain the kinetic triplet of the above materials. The thermal properties related to heat transfer were also mostly obtained in house. All these directly measured fire properties were inputted to FDS in order to model the coupled pyrolysis–combustion reactions to obtain the heat release rate (HRR) or mass loss. The comparison of the results from the simulations of non-prescribed fires show that experimental HRR or mass loss curve can be reasonably predicted if input parameters are directly measured and appropriately used. Some guidance to the optimization and inverse analysis technique to generate fire properties is provided. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire and Polymeric Materials/Systems Response in Building and Construction Industry)
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