Improving fire resistance and energy performance of fast buildings made of hollow polypropylene blocks

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) lightweight blocks have been recently developed for fast, easy and affordable way of residential and administrative building constructions. Although; PP blocks are characterized by many competitive advantages over traditional brick masonry, they lack of fire resistance owing to their low melting temperature. Therefore this study presents a technical cost-effective solution for improving the fire resistance rating (FRR) of the exposed PP walls to meet the requirements of the international building and international fire codes for providing optimal fire protection for occupants. A fire protective cladding system consists mainly of cold-formed steel framing lined with gypsum plasterboards with cavity insulation has been proposed to attain adequate FRR of exposed PP walls. Fire resistance standard test has been conducted on a representative test assembly to evaluate the FRR of the new composite wall. The contribution of the newly developed cladding to the energy consumption performance of a PP building model as compared to the traditional bricks/blocks has been assessed by using DesignBuilder energy simulation software. FRR of an hour (1-h) has been attained based on verifying structural integrity and thermal insulation of the protected PP wall. Up to an hour of fire exposure, the maximum temperature recorded for the unexposed PP wall surface was 69 °C this confirm the enhanced thermal insulation of the composite wall. The utilization of PP blocks in buildings has reduced the annual energy consumption by about 13 and 33.6% as compared to conventional clay and cement bricks respectively. The cladding system has provided additional considerable reduction in the energy consumption rate of PP blocks.