DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF INTUMESCENT FIRE RETARDANT COATING ON VARIOUS STRUCTURAL GEOMETRIES

Materials are very prone to catching fire regardless of its type. Once it catches fire, it will take certain amount of time to wipe it off depending on the rate of burning. A small fire will take less time to be cleared where by a big burn out will take a couple of hours to wipe it out. Buildings nowadays can be prone of catching fire and its build on various structural geometries. As it is, Traditional fire retardants are not very effective especially when there is a huge breakout of fires in plants and platforms. These traditional fire retardants also contain halogen and releases toxic vapours thus leading to a severe threat to life and environment. By contrast, intumescent coatings are relatively thin-film products that expand rapidly in a fire to insulate the steel. They come in various formulas that include a mixture of binders and acids that react under temperature to expand up to many times the original thickness of the film, creating a char that insulates the steel. In general, steel loses half its strength at 1,100 °F and begins to degrade as well as starts to loose its properties. Consequently leads us to the aim of this project which is to study the details of the expansion of char and heat shielding performance on various structural geometries with respect to inorganic fillers, (Aluminium Tri-Hydrate) and without filler. Researcher will develop an intumescent coating formulation with inorganic fillers and with no filler in order to get the comparison of optimal performance for char expansion and heat shielding performance on the various structural geometries. In order to meet these challenges, IFRC will be developed and tested on geometries such as T-joints, Elbows, I-Beams and Pipes. The development of coating will consist of three agents mainly Acid Source (APP, Polyphosphate), Carbon Source (EG, Expandable Graphite) and blowing agent (MEL, Melamin) followed by Epoxy, Boric Acid, Polyamide Hardner, etc. Once this coating is mixed, it will then be applied on the various structural geometries. This coating will then be tested in furnace and fire (Bunsen burner). The char expansion as well as heat shielding will be thoroughly observed and results will be obtained and further studied.