Kinetic analysis of the thermal degradation of an epoxy-based intumescent coating

The aim of this work is to analyse and to simulate the kinetics of pyrolysis of an intumescent formulation designed to protect steel in the case of hydrocarbon and jet fires. The coating is based on a thermoset epoxy-amine resin system into which two fire retardant agents, boric acid and ammonium polyphosphate derivative have been incorporated. Industrial tests (jet fire tests) are usually used to evaluate the degradation mode of an intumescent coating. But these tests are quite expensive, and as the heating rates are extremely high (between 500 and 800 °C/min), it is not possible to evaluate the thermal degradation behaviour of the intumescent coating directly by thermogravimetric analyses. That is why it is necessary to develop predictive models of kinetics of degradation of these intumescent coatings. In this work, the coating has been pyrolyzed at different heating rates and a predictive model of its kinetics of degradation has been developed.