Performance of GFRP After Exposure to Open Hydrocarbon Fire: Development of Hydrocarbon Fire

Due to its vast advantages compared to steel, most of oil and gas companies have shifted their interests to glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) as a new alternative material used in oil platform’s grating. Offering resistance from the environment, cost-cutting as well as mass reduction of platform weight, GFRP has become a perfect solution to recover the weaknesses imposed by steel as platform grating material. However, as GFRP is still considered new in application as a material for grating, engineers do not have a complete set of guide to determine the strength of the GFRP after it has been exposed to hydrocarbon fire for a certain period of time. Consequently, there is no indicator whether the GFRP still can be used or should be replaced with the new one in case there is occurence of fire that consists of hydrocarbon.
In order to proceed on research of the performance of GFRP under exposure of open hydrocarbon fire, study of behaviour of hydrocarbon fire itself is a must. Thorough and detail analysis on several parameters of hydrocarbon fire such as period of combustion and temperature distribution had been conducted by author so that the results from this research could be referred by another author who will proceed on research regarding the performance of GFRP after it being exposed to open-hydrocarbon fire.