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Upward Fire Spread Rate Over Real-Scale EPS ETICS Façades

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Abstract

The expanded polystyrene (EPS) façade has been widely used to save building energy, but it has also caused many severe facade fire accidents worldwide. Especially for aged buildings, the naturally weathered exterior surface layer can further increase the facade fire risk and the fire spread rate (FSR). In this work, a series of real-scale EPS External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) façades are tested via the JIS A 1310 standard. The EPS thickness varies from 100 to 300 mm, density changes from 15 kg/m3 to 30 kg/m3, and heat release rate (HRR) of window spilled flame ranges from 600 kW to 1100 kW. Tests showed that the surface cement layer was quickly damaged by a spilled flame that provided negligible fire resistance for the internal flammable EPS panel. The measured upward FSR increases with the rising of HRR and with the decreasing EPS thickness like the thermally thin material. An empirical correlation of instantaneous upward FRS is proposed, FSR = 0.22Φ + 3.45 [cm/min], where Φ is a modified fire propagation index derived from the experimental temperature distribution. In addition, a simple prediction method for FSR is proposed for the façade fire and verified by the experimental data. This work provides a useful method to quantify the upward façade fire propagation, which also helps evaluate the fire risk and hazard of EPS ETICS façade prior to the costly large-scale tests and installation.

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Abbreviations

CM :

Cement mortar

EPS :

Expanded polystyrene foam

ETICS :

External Thermal Insulation Composite System

FPI :

Fire propagation index [(m/s1/2)/(kW/m)2/3]

FSR :

Fire spread rate [cm/min]

HRR :

Heat release rate [kW]

IHFFS :

Incident heat flux upon the facade’s surface [kW/m2]

PCM :

Polymer cement mortar

PE :

Polyethylene

SBR :

Styrene-butadiene rubbers-latex

TRP :

Thermal Response Parameter [kW·s1/2/m2]

\(\overline{FSR}\) :

The averaged FSR of different positions [cm/min

A :

The window opening area [m2]

A T :

The inner surface area of chamber [m2]

Cp :

Specific heat [J/(kg·K)]

H :

The height of window opening [m]

k :

Thermal conductivity [W/(m·K)]

L EPS :

EPS thickness [mm]

\(\dot{Q}_{0}\) :

Critical window fire intensity for HRR out of chamber [kW]

\(\dot{Q}_{ch}^{^{\prime}}\) :

Chemical heat release rate per unit width [kW/m]

\(r_{0}^{^{\prime}}\) :

New length scale

T 0 :

Ambient temperature [K]

T ig :

Surface ignition temperature[K]

Tg :

Steady temperature of window fire opening [K]

TZ :

Maximum surface temperature for each position [K

ρ :

Density [kg/m3]

\(\Theta\) :

Dimensionless temperature profile

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Masamichi Tamura (University of Tokyo), Yutaka Tanaike (University of Tokyo), Yuhei Nishio (Tokyo University of Science), Miki Nakamura, and Yusuke Kanda (Tokyo University of Science) for preparation of the experiment and the help in the experimental operation. The authors thank Tetsuya Hayakawa (Tokyo System Vac., Inc.) for the Cone tests. This work is supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” No. 2020XJAQ03.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Emergency Management and Safety Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Biao Zhou & Kai Wang

  2. Department of Fire Engineering, Building Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0802, Japan

    Hideki Yoshioka

  3. Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8654, Japan

    Biao Zhou & Takafumi Noguchi

  4. Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Xinyan Huang

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  1. Biao Zhou
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  2. Hideki Yoshioka
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  3. Takafumi Noguchi
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  4. Kai Wang
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  5. Xinyan Huang
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Correspondence to Biao Zhou or Xinyan Huang.

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Zhou, B., Yoshioka, H., Noguchi, T. et al. Upward Fire Spread Rate Over Real-Scale EPS ETICS Façades. Fire Technol 57, 2007–2024 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-021-01103-3

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