An Experimental Study of Intumescent Fire Protection Coatings
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abstract
The use of intumescent coatings plays an important role in the fire protection of structural
elements. When submitted to elevated temperatures an intumescent coating undergoes
thermochemical reactions that promote a higher thermal protection. To evaluate the behaviour of
an intumescent coating, a set of experimental tests made on coated steel plates are performed in a
cone calorimeter. These tests are performed with different heat fluxes and intumescent
thicknesses. A simple and an advanced model, based in the Finite Difference Method, are
presented and applied to determine the intumescent surface temperature evolution, considering
the initial thickness and the intumescence variation.
The intumescence effective thermal conductivity is estimated by solving the inverse heat transfer
problem, considering the temperature in the steel equal to the experimental measured values.
When the intumescence thickness variation is taken into account in the numerical model a higher
thermal conductivity is expected, when compared with the constant thickness model.
