Abstract
This paper presents a coupled numerical investigation to assess the reaction to fire performance and fire resistance of various types of epoxy resin (ER) based composites. It examines the fire response of carbon fibre (CF) reinforced ER (CF/ER), ER with graphene nanoplatelets (GNP/ER) and CF reinforced GNP/ER (CF/GNP/ER). Thermal, physical and pyrolysis properties are presented to assist numerical modelling that is used to assess the material ability to pass the regulatory vertical burn test for new aircraft structures and estimate in-fire and post-fire residual strength properties.Except for the CF/GNP/ER composite, all other material systems fail the vertical burn test due to continuous burning after removal of the fire source. Carbon fibres are non-combustible and therefore reduce heat release rate of the ER composite. By combining this property with the beneficial barrier effects of graphene platelets, the CF/GNP/ER composite with 1.5 wt% GNP and 50 wt% CF self-extinguishes within 15 s after removal of the burner with a relatively small burn length. Graphene drastically slows down heat conduction and migration of decomposed volatiles to the surface by creating improved char structures. Thus, graphene is allowing the CF/GNP/ER composite panel to pass the regulatory vertical burn test.Due to low heat conduction and reduced heat release rate, the maximum temperatures in the CF/GNP/ER composite are low so the composite material retains very high in-fire and post-fire mechanical properties, maintaining structural integrity. In contrast, temperatures in the CF/ER composite are much higher. At a maximum temperature of 86 °C, the residual in-fire tensile and compressive mechanical strengths of CF/GNP/ER are about 87% and 59% respectively of the ambient temperature values, compared to 70% and 21% respectively for the CF/ER composite that has a temperature of 140 °C at the same time (but the CF/ER temperature will be higher due to continuing burning). Converting mass losses of the composites into char depth, the post-fire mechanical properties of the CF/GNP/ER composite are about 75% of the ambient condition compared to about 68% for the CF/ER composite.
Highlights
Precautions for fire safety are traditionally divided into two general considerations: reaction to fire performance that measures the ability of material to spread fire, and fire resistance, which is concerned with containment of fire by the structure
For structures made of non-combustible materials such as steel and concrete, because the loadbearing structure is non-combustible and structural loadbearing capacity is affected only when the structural materials reach much higher temperatures (>400 °C) than those involved in assessing material reaction to fire performance (
It is reported that when adding 70% of carbon fibre (CF) into epoxy resin (ER), both the peak heat release rate (PHRR) and total heat release rate (THRR) of CF/ER is reduced to be below 30% compared to pure ER [10]
Summary
Precautions for fire safety are traditionally divided into two general considerations: reaction to fire performance that measures the ability of material to spread fire, and fire resistance, which is concerned with containment of fire by the structure. When selecting composite materials for structural loadbearing applications where fire safety is a critical consideration, a balance has to be stricken so that the material can fulfil the requirements of both reaction to fire and fire resistance performance, while ensuring easy large scale processing Because of these demands, epoxy resin (ER) satisfies many of these demands, it is most commonly used in aircraft construction [7, 8]. Because the presence of a small amount (below 5 wt%) [17]) of nano fillers does not affect the processability of ER blends, it is possible to replace pure ER in CF/ER composite with GNP/ER to serve as the matrix to make GNP and CF co-reinforced ER composite (CF/GNP/ER) This hybrid composite with a hierarchy of structural scales has the potential to achieve the all-round performance requirements for reaction to fire and fire resistance performance in aircraft applications. Present an assessment of the effects of CF and GNP in reducing temperatures attained in ER so as to evaluate the in-fire and post-fire residual load carrying capacities of composite structures
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