Multifactorial quantitative optimization of fire protection efficiency of intumescent fire retardant materials

Introduction. Intumescent fire retardant materials (IFRM) are widely used as passive fire protection means. The principle of their action providing increase of fire resistance of a structure is based on foaming and formation of heat-insulating coked cellular material layer under conditions of fire exposure. Active research conducted in this field formulated general principles for the development of IFRM based on functional components (FC) responsible for the fire protection function of coverings.

Purpose. To propose a new systematic approach to the development of IFRM, which takes into account the quantitative influence of all FC included in the composition of IFRM and to demonstrate its effectiveness on the example of developing the formulation of water-base IFRM.

Methodology. A method of multifactor quantitative optimization was developed and described to enhance the fire retardant effectiveness (FRE) of IFRM. The optimization of the composition is carried out by changing the quantitative ratio of the FC within the IFRM formulation by a selected coefficient of variation. The optimization is carried out through an iterative mechanism, which allows to detect new maximums of FRE. Each stage corresponds to a design matrix describing all possible combinations of FC, the number of which is determined by the number of FC. To assess the maximum FRE and the progress of optimization, fire tests were conducted under standard fire temperature conditions. The method was validated on a base IFRM formulation based on polyvinyl acetate dispersion and four FC: ammonium polyphosphate, melamine, pentaerythritol, and titanium dioxide.

Results and its discussion. Through two stages of multifactor quantitative optimization, the investigated formulation of the IFRM achieved its optimum in terms of FRE. The FRE of the IFPM was increased from 31 to 45 minutes, accompanied by qualitative improvements in the appearance of the coked cellular material.

Conclusions. The multifactor optimization method allowed to find the optimal ratio of the FC and to increase the FRE by 45 % as a result of well-structured experimental procedures. This optimization method is recommended for implementation in the development process of new IFRM.

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