Effect of fire retardants on the reaction to fire of Picea abies L. wood | Dažādu antipirēnu ietekme uz egles Picea abies L. koksnes ugunsreakciju
2009
Buksans, E., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Forest Faculty. Dept. of Wood Processing;Institute of Forest and Wood Products Research and Development, Jelgava (Latvia)
Treatment of wood by fire retardants reduces its reaction to fire. Fire retardant treated whitewood (wood of Picea abies L.), compared to untreated wood, which is commonly used in construction, is suitable for a greater variety of applications where higher fire safety is required. There are a number of fire retardants for wood available in Latvia, both domestic and imported, but for none of them correspondence to a definite fire class is specified. The paper presents the results of the reaction to fire tests of whitewood treated by different fire retardants available in Latvia. Two impregnation and two coating type fire retardants were used for treating whitewood material. Samples of thickness 20 mm and moisture content of wood 11% were used. Untreated samples of the same dimensions were used for reference tests. Fire tests were done in the single burning item (SBI) according to Standard EN 13823 and the results were compared with those for untreated wood. Detailed data analysis is done to evaluate the heat release rate (HRR), the fire growth rate (FIGRA), and the total heat release (THR). In all cases the treatment by fire retardants reduces the reaction to fire of whitewood by decreasing the heat release rate and the fire growth rate during burning. Fire retardants decreased also the total smoke production (TSP), thus allowing to classify the smoke release by index s1. According to standard EN 13501-1, the reaction to fire of untreated whitewood corresponds to Fire Class D, while the treatment by fire retardants improves the reaction, which corresponds to Fire Class C or B. Two of the tested fire retardant treatments raise the reaction of whitewood to fire to Class to B and the other two - to Class C. The best results were achieved with the fire retardant coatings expanding under the heat influence.
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