The performance of commercial intumescent coatings is assessed by industrial norms and standards with clearly defined experimental conditions. In contrast, academic research on intumescent coatings is much more diverse and there are no clear guidelines on how such coatings should be characterised. Some researchers transfer the conditions defined in the industrial standards to laboratory-scale setups while others rely on cone calorimeters or Bunsen burners. This might not be an issue when comparing different coating formulations within one study. However, it significantly complicates the comparison of coatings characterised with different experimental approaches and usually provides little insight into the coating performance under industrial fire test conditions.

This review article gives an overview over different experimental approaches reported in the academic literature for the performance evaluation of intumescent coatings. The heating conditions in these different groups of setups, ranging from furnaces and ovens over radiative heaters to impinging flames, are elaborated in a tutorial style fashion. Besides the sample heating, in-situ characterisation techniques, such as measurements of char expansion, temperature, and mechanical strength will be discussed. The aim is to aid researchers in evaluating literature reports as well as stimulate the development of new and the optimisation of existing experimental approaches.

商业膨胀型涂料的性能通过工业规范和标准以及明确定义的实验条件进行评估。相反，关于膨胀型涂料的学术研究要多样化得多，并且对于如何表征这种涂料尚无明确的指导方针。一些研究人员将工业标准中定义的条件转移到实验室规模的设置中，而另一些研究人员则依赖于锥形量热仪或本生灯。在一项研究中比较不同涂料配方时，这可能不是问题。然而，这大大增加了以不同实验方法表征的涂层的比较复杂性，并且通常对工业防火测试条件下的涂层性能了解甚少。

这篇综述文章概述了学术文献中报道的用于膨胀型涂料性能评估的不同实验方法。以教程样式的方式详细说明了这些不同组设置中的加热条件，从加热炉和烤箱到辐射加热器，一直到火焰。除了样品加热外，还将讨论原位表征技术，例如焦炭膨胀，温度和机械强度的测量。目的是帮助研究人员评估文献报告，并刺激新方法的开发和现有实验方法的优化。