Abstract
The chemical and physical properties of gypsum plasterboard result in it retarding the spread of fires through buildings. This is principally because the rate of heat transfer through plasterboard is slowed considerably by the absorption of energy associated with the dissociation of gypsum bihydrate into gypsum hemihydrate at a temperature of about 120 °C. A second dissociation of gypsum hemihydrate to anhydrous gypsum occurs at 650 °C. This paper presents a finite element model of the heat transfer processes that occur in plasterboard that is exposed to fire. It incorporates the concept of dehydration fronts that progress from the heated side of a sheet of plasterboard to the unheated side. Results from the model are in good agreement with published experimental data. Plasterboards shrink when they undergo dehydration processes, and the results from the thermal model are used in an analysis of the structural response of restrained plasterboard exposed to fire. It is shown that the stresses generated by the shrinkage result in structural failure of the plasterboard.
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