Development of a fire-retardant 3-dimensional woven glass-polyester sandwich composite

Abstract

This study is an effort to develop a fire-retardant sandwich structure made of 3-dimensional woven glass-polyester composite. The sandwich composite was designed to be applied as a floor panel in the transportation industries. Hence, for safety reason, fire retardancy is one of the crucial properties of consideration. Fire retardancy of the sandwich composite was studied based on the basic ignitability test method for testing a rigid material developed by ORE Working Group B 106.2. With this method, materials are classified based on the burnt surface area and the burn time after the source of flame extinguished. The sandwich composites were produced in a variation weight proportion (30%, 40%, and 50%) of aluminum trihydroxide (Al(OH)3) in the polyester matrix, followed by the ignitability test to study the effect of the aluminum trihydroxide addition on the fire retardancy of the material. The ignitability tests were also carried out to the basic 3-dimensional glass-polyester sandwich composite and 2-dimensional woven glass-polyester composite for comparison. As a result, it is found that the 2-dimensional woven glass-polyester composite falls into classification A, which is the best classification of materials in terms of fire retardancy, while the basic sandwich composite falls into classification C, which is the worst one. However, fire retardancy of the sandwich composite improves after the addition of Al(OH)3. The sandwich composite reaches the classification A with the addition of a minimum 40% of Al(OH)3.