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First developments of a new test to evaluate the fire behavior of photovoltaic modules on roofs
(2015)
A new test for photovoltaic (PV) modules exposed to an external fire source on roofs is proposed, and first results are presented. This is a simplification of the standards commonly in use for testing PV modules as roofing parts, roofing components or building components. Most of the tests required different fire scenarios and the use of burning brands such as wood cribs. In our study we proposed replacing wooden burning brands with a propane burner, the output of which is close to the one that can be observed in the burning of wooden cribs 500 g and 2 kg in size. The fire behavior was assessed by measuring smoke evolution, burning drips, flaming debris, and the time to burn-through of monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous silicon panels. Two different configurations of the burner were tested, with the fire source on the top of the module or under the tilted module, respectively. The fire behavior of the modules was dependent on the burner output (16 to 46 kW), but also on the construction type of the panel (glass/glass or glass/plastic sheet) and on the position of the fire source (top or bottom). These preliminary tests for further development of the procedure yielded encouraging results for the evaluation of PV panels on roofs.
Intumescent coatings are commonly used in civil engineering to improve the fire resistance of steel constructions. Especially in the case of tension bars, where mostly circular or rectangular solid sections are used, intumescent coatings offer an efficient measure to improve the fire resistance taking advantage of profile-following application and low coating thickness requirements. Thus, the architectural appearance of slender profiles can be preserved. The paper describes real-scale mechanically loaded and unloaded fire tests of circular and rectangular solid steel tension bars with intumescent coating. The aim of these tests is to investigate the influence of the different profile types as well as different bar orientations on the performance of intumescent coatings. The results are used to specify a normative test and assessment procedure to be implemented in a new European standard for determining the contribution of intumescent coatings to the fire resistance of circular or rectangular bars used as tension members.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of intumescent coating on tension rod systems and their components. Steel tension rod systems consist of tension rods, fork end connectors and associated intersection or gusset plates. In case of fire, beside the tension rods themselves, the connection parts require appropriate fire protection. Intumescent fire protection coatings prevent a rapid heating of the steel and help secure the structural load-carrying capacity. Because the connection components of tension rod systems feature surface curvature and a complex geometry, high demand is placed on the intumescence and thermal protection performance of the coatings.
Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, experimental studies were carried out for steel tension rod systems with intumescent coating. The examined aspects include the foaming and cracking behaviour, the influence of different dry film thicknesses, the heating rate of the steel connecting parts in comparison to the tension rods, and the mounting orientation of the tension rods together with their fork end connectors.
Findings – The results show that a decrease in surface curvature and/or an increase inmass concentration of the steel components leads to a lower heating rate of the steel. Moreover, the performance of the intumescent coating on tension rod systems is influenced by themounting orientation of the steel components.
Originality/value – The findings based on fire tests contribute to a better understanding of the intumescent coating performance on connection components of tension rod systems. This subject has not been extensively studied yet.
The size effect has its origin in fracture mechanics and describes the formation as well as propagation of cracks in brittle and solid materials in dependence of the specimen size. However, the size effect in concrete spalling describes the damage behaviour on a macroscopic scale for different sized specimens in case of fire. Concrete spalling is a very complex and yet not fully understood phenomenon. To reduce the effort of fire tests to analyse the spalling behaviour of concrete mixtures, this study investigates the susceptibility to spalling for six different concrete mixtures and three specimen sizes. The sizes were divided in full scale slabs (1.8 m x 1.2 m x 0.3 m), intermediate scale cuboids (0.6 m x 0.6 m x 0.3 m) and small scale cylinders (Ø0.15 m x 0.3 m). For this purpose, a novel test set-up was built to test six intermediate scale or twelve small scale specimens simultaneously to ensure a similar heating regime for every specimen. All specimens were fire exposed on one side and remained unrestrained. A size effect occurred for four of the six concrete mixtures. Compared to the full scale specimens the spalling was reduced significantly for all smaller specimen sizes. Additionally, spalling did not occur for the small scale specimens. The results show that the specimen size is an essential parameter to investigate the susceptibility to spalling of a concrete mixture. For future investigations the testing conditions must be adjusted for the intermediate scale specimens to recreate the conditions of the slabs.
Understanding the susceptibility to spalling of concrete members in case of fire is important to evaluate the residual load-bearing capacity. The investigations of the spalling phenomenon of a concrete mixture using real scale members are necessary but expensive to carry out. Reducing the specimen size leads to an increase of boundary effects that can result in a reduced spalling or absence of spalling. In this study, fire tests were carried out on unrestrained, single-sided exposed, cuboid shaped specimens (0.6 m x 0.6 m x 0.29 m) as well as unrestrained and steel ring restrained cylindrical specimens (Ø = 0.47 m, h = 0.29 m), which induce different boundary conditions. These fire tests were carried out on two ordinary concrete mixtures. The two mixtures differ only in the type of aggregates (quartz gravel and basalt grit) and were used to investigate the influence of the thermal expansion of the aggregate on the spalling behaviour of the concrete. The results show a significant increase of
the spalling depth due to the restrained thermal expansion achieved by the applied steel rings. Additionally, the type of aggregate has a direct influence on the spalling behaviour of a concrete mixture. The reduction of the boundary effects by the steel rings recreate the test conditions in the centre of a large concrete member. Thus, this type of specimen is suitable to determine the susceptibility to spalling of a material (screening-tests) as preliminary investigations to full scale fire tests.
The inhalationof smoke gases is awell-established cause of poisoning and leads to the death of fire victims. Carbonmonoxide(CO) and Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) are two of the main noxious gases,whereby HCN is formed by an incomplete combustion of materials containing nitrogen. These materials may be natural materials, such as wool, silk and feathers or synthetic plastics, such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polyamide and polyurethane. These materials are very common in modern household furnishings; therefore, notonlyCObutalsoHCN can be produced during home fires. Up tonowonly a fewstudieshave been carried out on the generation of HCN as the fire proceeds, e. g. by Crewe et al. The data from such analyses are useful for forensic purposes. This enables the possibility to more accurately assess the events at the fire location, the Situation in which the fire victims are found as well as the cause of death. One way to analyze the gas composition of smoke is to perform bench scale fire tests, where various fire scenarios can be simulated on a smaller scale (e. g. using a smoke density chamber). The results from such experiments were compared with the results obtained in an enclosed room fire test.
The current trend for future flame retardants (FRs) goes to novel efficient halogen-free materials, due to the ban of several halogenated FRs. Among the most promising alternatives are phosphorus-based FRs, and of those, polymeric materials with complex shape have been recently reported. Herein, we present novel halogen-free aromatic and aliphatic hyperbranched polyphosphoesters (hbPPEs), which were synthesized by olefin Metathesis polymerization and investigated them as a FR in epoxy resins. We compare their efficiency (aliphatic vs. aromatic) and further assess the differences between the monomeric compounds and the hbPPEs. The decomposition and vaporizing behavior of a compound is an important factor in its flame-retardant behavior, but also the interaction with the pyrolyzing matrix has a significant influence on the performance. Therefore, the challenge in designing a FR is to optimize the chemical structure and its decomposition pathway to the matrix, with regards to time and temperature. This behavior becomes obvious in this study, and explains the superior gas phase activity of the aliphatic FRs.
In this paper, the influence of a fixed water mist firefighting system on a high-speed non-premixed horizontal methane jet fire is investigated with focus on its effect on temperatures and heat load of the jet fire and on ist surroundings. Six tests are performed in which gas is released out of an orifice with a diameter of 1 mm and a release pressure of up to 186 bar. In addition to temperature and radiation measurements, the release pressure, gas mass flow rate and exhaust gas concentrations are detected to determine the heat release. Video and IRanalysis are used to evaluate the interactions between jet fire and water mist. The experiments show, that water mist reduces the temperatures inside the jet fire flow field and its radiative heat flux. It can lower the Risk of ignition of adjacent surfaces and materials, as temperatures fall below autoignition temperatures of common materials like plastics. Although water mist does not extinguish the fire, it has an impact on the energy release by reducing combustion efficiency due to heat exchange with the water mist and oxygen displacement.
This study evaluates the efficacy of compressed air foam (CAF) in comparison to common fire extinguishing media. Newly developed mixed-material burning cribs were used as a normative fire load for extinguishing tests to accurately represent the significantly elevated utilization of synthetic materials in everyday life. A series of outdoor experiments was carried out to analyze the effectiveness of the fire extinguishing medium CAF using synthetical class-A foaming agents from two different manufacturers, and compared them to water and waterfoam solution as a function of the extinguishing distance. In a second series, performed inside a fire room, the efficiency of CAF-usage in indoor fires was evaluated. Moreover, the results of the indoor test series provided information about the composition of smoke gases based on the kind of extinguishing tactic used to suppress the fire. The results showed that under the tested conditions CAF suppressed fire more effectively than both water and water with foaming agents. CAF was able to wet areas hardly accessible to other extinguishing media, and due to its various simultaneously occurring effects and its compact jet with high kinetic energy, it cooled down temperatures more efficiently than water or water-foam solution.