Char Strength of Wool Fibre Reinforced Epoxy-Based Intumescent Coatings (FRIC)

Fire protective intumescent coating cannot insulate a base material effectively if its char lacks mechanical strength. This research therefore, studied the effects of fibre reinforcement to epoxy-based intumescent coating's char strength. The fibres used include glass wool fibre, Rockwool fibre and ceramic wool fibre of 10mm length. The three formulations' mechanical performances were compared to both, a famous commercial intumescent coating and a control formulation without fibre. These coatings were fire tested up to 800 degrees C in an electric furnace for an hour. Their chars' mechanical properties were evaluated for char resistance test using predetermined weight loads. In the test, masses from 100g to 3600g were loaded continuously on top of the chars where the fibre reinforced intumescent coating (FRIC) has shown better strength and resistance to deformation. As a result, they produced lower percentage of height reduction i.e. 34% - 83% different when compared to unreinforced coating. Control char also ruptured at as low as 4N load. It was deduced that fire insulative wool fibres are effective reinforcement for improved char strength of the FRIC.