An Improved Method for Thermal Analysis of Intumescent Coatings

Abstract

Intumescent coating is a popular fire protection material for steel structural elements with beneficial temperature dependent thermal and mechanical properties. The analysis of the heat flux through the intumescent coating appears to be complicated, due to expansion and chemical reactions in material. In the paper an improved numerical method for the thermal analysis of intumescent coatings is presented. Temperature dependency on both the thermal and the mechanical properties of intumescent coating, expansion of the material and the chemical reaction are taken into account. The method is validated by comparing numerical and experimental results for two different intumescent coatings.