The effect of different passive fire protection systems on the fire reaction properties of GFRP pultruded profiles for civil construction

In order to study the viability of using GFRP pultruded profiles in floors of buildings, as structural elements, experimental investigations were carried out to analyse their behaviour when exposed to fire. In particular, the feasibility and efficacy of using different protective coatings/layers (an intumescent coating, a vermiculite/perlite cement based mortar and a calcium silicate board) to provide fire protection to GFRP pultruded profiles was investigated. Previous experiments showed that the above mentioned passive fire protection systems allow fulfilling fire resistance requirements for the envisaged application. This paper presents the results of the investigations concerning the fulfilment of the fire reaction requirements of those solutions. The experimental programme included dynamic mechanical analyses (DMA) and thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry (TGA/DSC) experiments on both the GFRP and the fire protection materials. Subsequently, fire reaction tests were carried out on GFRP pultruded laminates, both unprotected and protected with the different fire protection systems, using a cone calorimeter. Results of these experiments allowed defining the field of application of each investigated solution, according to building code requirements.