High-throughput fire testing for intumescent coatings

A new small- scale fire test is described in this paper. The goal was to design a high- throughput test permitting the optimization of intumescent mastic coatings formulated to protect steel in the case of hydrocarbon fire. This type of coating, applied on steel plates, beams, or columns, is usually evaluated in large industrial furnaces. Such experiments are expensive and time- consuming. The development of a small- scale laboratory test using an external heat flux is investigated. Temperature as a function of time is recorded on the back of the coated steel panel. It is shown that temperature profiles are very well correlated with those measured in industrial furnaces. This low- cost and fast test is very repeatable, and it allows rapid screening of a large number of different coating formulations. The test also shows good correlation with the results obtained in cellulosic fire testing.