doi:10.3850/978-981-08-7724-8_15-07

ABSTRACT

A numerical model is presented to predict the burning behaviours of flaxboard with intumescent coating and nanoparticles in the cone calorimeter and single burning item (SBI). Thermal and ignition properties of flaxboard are deduced by conducting ignition tests at different heat fluxes in the cone calorimeter. These properties are used in a 1D charring model to predict the burning rate of flaxboard. To account for the effects of the intumescent coating layers, a global fractional factor is introduced, which defines the ratio of the heat flux at the interface of the intumescent surface and the char layer of flaxboard to the surface heat flux when there is no intumescent coating layer. The values of the fractional factor for the intumescent coating w/wo nanoparticles are first found by comparing predictions to the experimental data in the cone calorimeter. This fraction factor and the deduced properties are subsequently incorporated in two flame spread models, including a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and an integral model, to predict burning rates in the SBI tests.

Keywords: Flaxboard, Intumescent coating, Nanoparticles, Pyrolysis, CFD model, Integral model.

© 2011 CPD Unit, University of Leeds