Effect of temperature on thermal properties of spray applied fire resistive materials

Thermal properties of fire insulation namely thermal conductivity, specific heat, thermal strain and mass loss play a critical role in determining the effectiveness of these materials to improve fire resistance of steel structural members. These properties vary with temperature and are predominantly governed by moisture content and chemical constituents. This paper presents the effect of temperature on thermal properties of different types of spray applied fire resistive materials (SFRM). High temperature property tests were carried out on three types of commercially available SFRM to measure thermal conductivity, specific heat, mass loss and thermal strain in the range of 20-1000 °C. Data from these tests show that temperature has significant influence on thermal conductivity, thermal expansion and mass loss of fire insulation. The measured test data are utilized to develop thermal property relationships for fire insulation in terms of temperature. The proposed relations can be used as input data in thermo-mechanical analysis for evaluating fire resistance of steel structures.