Tests on intumescent paints for fire protection of existing steel structures

The tested steel members have various section factors and behave two fire curves (Standard Fire and Smouldering Fire) during the tests in furnace. The furnace tests were performed on steel members with original i.c. (reference) and steel members protected by applying a new i.c. after removing the existing paint (restored) or simply by applying it on the existing paint (repainted). The results show that the existing i.c. is not very efficient, whereas the restored and repainted specimens showed similar performance. A law for the thermal conductivity of the i.c. was obtained from the experimental results, according to an European code, and used in a finite element numerical model.