Flame Retardancy Index for Thermoplastic Composites.

Henri Vahabi,Mohammad Saeb,Baljinder Kandola

doi:10.3390/polym11030407

Henri Vahabi, Mohammad Saeb + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11030407

Copy DOI

Abstract

Flame Retardancy Index, FRI, was defined as a simple yet universal dimensionless criterion born out of cone calorimetry data on thermoplastic composites and then put into practice for quantifying the flame retardancy performance of different polymer composites on a set of reliable data. Four types of thermoplastic composites filled with a wide variety of flame retardant additives were chosen for making comparative evaluations regardless of the type and loading level of the additive as well as the irradiance flux. The main features of cone calorimetry including peak of Heat Release Rate (pHRR), Total Heat Release (THR), and Time-To-Ignition (TTI) served to calculate a dimensionless measure that reflects an improvement in the flame retardancy of nominated thermoplastic composites with respect to the neat thermoplastic, quantitatively. A meaningful trend was observed among well-classified ranges of FRI quantities calculated for the studied dataset on thermoplastic composites by which “Poor”, “Good”, and “Excellent” flame retardancy performances were explicitly defined and exhibited on logarithmic scales of FRI axis. The proposed index remains adaptable to thermoplastic systems whatever the polymer or additive is.

Highlights

Background and MethodologyFor evaluating the flame retardancy performance of polymers, one may need to visualize the hidden phenomena behind fire scenarios
A careful survey filled of open literature confirms that are levels severalofarrays of The possibilities these parameters originates a vast variety of firethermoplastic scenarios which are likely to occur in fluctuations in peak of Heat Release Rate (pHRR), Total Heat Release (THR), from and TTI
One may need a simpler way to evaluate the function of flame retardants used in thermoplastic composites, such as a dimensionless criterion which could eliminate the need for simultaneous evaluation of two different measures with their own dimensions each reflecting a complexity of explanation

Summary

Problem Description

Additive selection for developing flame retardant systems based on thermoplastic polymers has been the subject of heated debate within the material science profession. A careful survey filled of open literature confirms that are levels severalofarrays of The possibilities these parameters originates a vast variety of firethermoplastic scenarios which are likely to occur in fluctuations in pHRR, THR, from and TTI values of a given containing different flame thermoplastics filled with different flame retardants having alevels specified action. TTI, pHRR, and THR have a different nature, the lack of a universal criterion for measuring good flame retardancy performance of a thermoplastic composite in the presence of different types of flame retardant systems, would cause decision-making to be very difficult

Background and Methodology

Conclusions