The Effects of Fiberglass on the Thermal Insulation Properties of Intumescent Coatings

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of fiberglass addition into a basic
intumescent coating formulation towards the enhancement of its thermal insulation
properties. Intumescent coating has been an effective way to provide fire protection
to the structural steel in the construction industry in the case of fire. The intumescent
coating were formulated from expandable graphite (EG), ammonium polyphosphate
(APP), melamine, boric acid, bisphenol A epoxy resin (BPA), triethylenetetramine
(TETA) and fiberglass 3.00 mm. Eight different formulations were developed to
study the effects of fiberglass addition on the thermal insulation performance of the
coatings. The new developed intumescent coatings were tested for their fire
performance by burning them at 450 •c, 650 •c and 850 •c in the furnace for 2
hours. The effects of each fire test at different temperatures; low and high
temperature were evaluated. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), X-Ray
Diffraction technique (XRD) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) were
conducted to study the char morphology, the crystalline material structure and
chemical components and the thermal analysis of the coatings. The FG07 and FG08
formulations with 6.0 grams and 7.0 grams fiberglass provide better results in terms
of the enhanced thermal insulation properties of the coatings. The FG07 and FG08
coating recorded the best expansion during fire test at 450 •c and 650 •c, the highest
back steel temperature during thermal insulation test and illustrate good coating
characteristics after analysis using SEM. These coatings also recorded the presence
of graphite, boron oxide and boron phosphate after XRD testing and with some
residue left after degradation analysis using SEM. It can be concluded that the
addition of fiberglass into the basic intumescent formulations has enhanced the
thermal characteristic of the coating and helps to maintain the structure of buildings
in longer time.