Abstract
Cold-formed Light gauge Steel Frame (LSF) floor-ceiling systems are commonly made with non-combustible fire protective membrane to protect the steel floor joists in fire. Thermal improvements to the fire protective membrane delay the heat transfer to structural elements and provide enhanced fire resistance level. Hence, this study addresses the thermal performance of different fire resistant board configurations under standard fire conditions to compare and propose improvements to conventional systems. Small-scale fire tests were conducted for a range of configurations of gypsum plasterboard, calcium silicate board and magnesium oxide board with the inclusion of thin steel sheathing. Fire test results showed that gypsum plasterboard and calcium silicate board performed very similar in regards to insulation criterion based failure times, while magnesium oxide board performed considerably worse. In all cases steel sheathing provided improved failure times. Improvements of 48%, 33% and 47% were obtained for gypsum plasterboard, calcium silicate board and magnesium oxide board when steel sheathing was used. This paper presents the details of the small-scale fire tests of different fire resistant board configurations and the results of time-temperature profiles. Based on these results, optimum fire resistant board configurations are recommended to achieve higher fire resistance levels for LSF floor-ceiling systems.
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