Experimental study on vertical temperature profile of EPS external thermal insulation composite systems masonery façade fire according to JIS A 1310 method

Abstract

Thermoplastic Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems (ETICS) has caused serious results due to the ravages of frequent fire disasters. The fire propagation over EPS ETICS surface was observed to be very fast. High temperature threatens the safety of exterior building wall. However, vertical temperature distribution of EPS ETICS façade fire (without cavity) is not available until now. Presently, a quantitative correlation was investigated through a series of theory derivation and experiment tests, which involves vertical temperature distribution of EPS ETICS façade surface, window fire intensity, thermal parameters and fire propagation potentials of EPS ETICS specimen. The theory consists of three parts, window-spilled fire model, thermal parameters and fire propagation index (FPI) method. In JIS A 1310 standard tests, widow fire intensity changes from 600 to 1100 kW, thermal response parameter differs from 163.9 to 276.8 kW · s2/m2 and FPI varied from 17.1 to 28.9 (m/s1/2)/(kW/m)2/3. Finally, an adequate approximation for vertical temperature in the form of a dimensionless temperature is proposed based on test results. It provides a potential correlation to obtain vertical temperature distribution prior to the intermediate-scale test.