Are Foams a Fire Hazard?

Woolley, W.D.

doi:10.1007/978-94-009-3443-6_3

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…6 Indeed, to identify the potential fire hazards to life safety from insulation materials in buildings, numerous authors have extensively studied the fire performance of different types of insulation under different approaches. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] The biggest concern, represented as the flammability and energy release, has classically been addressed using bench-scale experimentation, [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] eg, determining the limiting oxygen index according 24 to ASTM D2863 and assessing ignition properties, heat release, and flame spread by using the cone calorimeter 25 or the LIFT apparatus. 26 During recent decades, the fire performance of these materials has been improved by applying flame retardancy techniques, ie, promoting charring behaviour and endothermic reactions in the solid phase, which is typically researched at material scale using thermogravimetry.…”

Section: Fire Hazards From Combustible Insulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[10][11][12] While most of this work has clearly served to rate the hazard from insulation products under specific testing scenarios, several authors highlight that the extrapolation of the performance observed from small-scale testing is hardly applicable to larger scale due to the combination of complex phenomena. 22,23,27,28 Although significant efforts are constantly made to reduce the flammability/combustibility of these materials, there is potential for confusion from the belief that the risk associated with these hazards can be effectively mitigated by obtaining better ratings from standard testing. Harmonisation of standardised testing is intended to offer a plausible representation of the fire hazards from construction products.…”

Section: Fire Hazards From Combustible Insulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is however not a new problem, and many aspects have already been addressed by several authors and institutions in the past . Indeed, to identify the potential fire hazards to life safety from insulation materials in buildings, numerous authors have extensively studied the fire performance of different types of insulation under different approaches . The biggest concern, represented as the flammability and energy release, has classically been addressed using bench‐scale experimentation, eg, determining the limiting oxygen index according to ASTM D2863 and assessing ignition properties, heat release, and flame spread by using the cone calorimeter or the LIFT apparatus .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire performance of charring closed‐cell polymeric insulation materials: Polyisocyanurate and phenolic foam

2018

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Summary Results are presented from 2 series of ad hoc experimental programmes using the cone calorimeter to investigate the burning behaviour of charring closed‐cell polymeric insulation materials, specifically polyisocyanurate (PIR) and phenolic (PF) foams. These insulation materials are widely used in the construction industry due to their relatively low thermal conductivity. However, they are combustible in nature; therefore, their fire performance needs to be carefully studied, and characterisation of their thermal degradation and burning behaviour is required in support of performance‐based approaches for fire safety design. The first series of experiments was used to examine the flaming and smouldering of the char from PIR and PF. The peak heat release rate per unit area was within the range of 120 to 170 kW/m2 for PIR and 80 to 140 kW/m2 for PF. The effective heat of combustion during flaming was within the range of 13 to 16 kJ/g for PIR and around 16 kJ/g for PF, while the CO/CO2 ratio was within 0.05 to 0.10 for PIR and 0.025 to 0.05 for PF. The second experimental programme served to map the thermal degradation processes of pyrolysis and oxidation in relation to temperature measurements within the solid phase under constant levels of nominal irradiation. Both programmes showed that surface regression due to smouldering was more significant for PF than PIR under the same heat exposure conditions, essentially because of the different degree of overlap in pyrolysis and oxidation reactions. The smouldering of the char was found to self‐extinguish after removal of the external heat source.

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Section: Fire Hazards From Combustible Insulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fire Hazards From Combustible Insulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire performance of charring closed‐cell polymeric insulation materials: Polyisocyanurate and phenolic foam

2018

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“…Polyurethane foams produce more smoke (1.0-7.4 mg of deposited smoke) than rigid polystyrene (1.7), wood, wood wool, and phenolic foam but less than poly (vinyl chloride) (28.9), acrylics (40.6), and nitrocellulose crystals. 42 Polyurethane foams produce smoke that is double in volume with respect to wood components. In the flaming mode, a flexible urethane foam produces less smoke than a rigid foam, whereas in the nonflaming mode, the smoke difference is quite low.…”

Section: Smoke and Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hurd43 found that 1 kg of foam generates smoke that is equivalent to 12 kg of bitumen. The dependence of smoke formation on the temperature at which the polyurethane foam is exposed to pyrolysis and combustion was studied in a ceramic boat tube furnace at 200–500°C in nitrogen and air 44. It was found that the maximum evolution of smoke occurs above 650°C and that it contains virtually all the nitrogen of the original foams.…”

Section: Smoke and Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ignition, combustion, toxicity, and fire retardancy of polyurethane foams: A comprehensive review

Singh

Jain

2008

J of Applied Polymer Sci

267

168

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This review provides insight into the ignition, combustion, smoke, toxicity, and fire-retardant performance of flexible and rigid polyurethane foams. This review also covers various additive and reactive fireretardant approaches adopted to render polyurethane foams fire-retardant. Literature sources are mostly technical publications, patents, and books published since 1961. It has been found by different workers that polyurethane foams are easily ignitable and highly flammable, support combustion, and burn quite rapidly. They are therefore required to be fire-retardant for different applications. Polyurethane foams during combustion produce a large quantity of vision-obscuring smoke. The toxicity of the combustion products is much higher than that of many other manmade polymers because of the high concentrations of hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Polyurethane foams have been rendered fire-retardant by the incorporation of phosphorus-containing compounds, halogen-containing compounds, nitrogen-containing additives, silicone-containing products, and miscellaneous organic and inorganic additives. Some heat-resistant groups such as carbodiimide-, isocyanurate-, and nitrogencontaining heterocycles formed with polyurethane foams also render urethane foams fire-retardant. Fire-retardant additives reduce the flammability, smoke level, and toxicity of polyurethane foams with some degradation in other characteristics. It can be concluded that despite many significant attempts, no commercial solution to the fire retardancy of polyurethane foams without some loss of physical and mechanical properties is available.

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Preparation and Characterization of Polyurethane Rigid Foam Nanocomposites from Used Cooking Oil and Perlite

Sarim

Nikje

Dargahi

2023

International Journal of Polymer Science

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Modern chemical industries trend towards industrial ecology to achieve a circular economy, because of increasing environmental and economic awareness jointly. One of the most important of these industries is polyurethane, accompanied by more and more interest in using renewable polyols. The study focuses on synthesizing and characterizing polyurethane rigid foams formulated by replacing 40%, 60%, and 100% of a petrochemical polyol with a bio-polyol derived from used cooking oil, and introducing perlite and modified perlite nanoparticles into the bio-polyol. The products were evidenced by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectral analyses, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The results indicate that the hydroxide value and viscosity at 25°C of the bio-polyol were around 456 ± 30 mg KOH/g and 148 mPa s. Bio-polyol blends of 40% and 60% had no significant effect on the thermal properties of polyurethane systems. The lowest value of char yield was observed for the sample with a 100% bio-polyol content of 2.3%. The beneficial effects of both perlite and modified perlite particles on the 100% bio-polyol-based foam were observed as having an effective role in improving thermal stability and reconstructing cellular structure. The yield char increased to 13.2%, 14%, 14.7%, and 15% for the two filler contents 2.5% and 5%. However, the new bio-polyol has a fairly good value in industrial construction, and the perlite particles have enhanced and improved this value.

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Are Foams a Fire Hazard?

Cited by 4 publications

References 9 publications

Fire performance of charring closed‐cell polymeric insulation materials: Polyisocyanurate and phenolic foam

Fire performance of charring closed‐cell polymeric insulation materials: Polyisocyanurate and phenolic foam

Ignition, combustion, toxicity, and fire retardancy of polyurethane foams: A comprehensive review

Preparation and Characterization of Polyurethane Rigid Foam Nanocomposites from Used Cooking Oil and Perlite

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