Fire retardant performance and thermal degradation of korean pine treated with fire retardant chemical

Abstract

An intumescent fire retardant was synthesized with of ammonium phosphate polymer (APP), guanyl urea phosphate (GUP) as main components. And Korean pine (Pinns koraiensis) was impregnated with this fire retardant by a vacuum-pressure process. The fire retardant performance of treated Korean pine wood with various chemical uptakes was assessed by cone calorimeter. The combustion parameters, including heating release rate (HRR), total heat release (THR), effective heat of combustion (EHC), total mass loss (TML), smoke production rate (SPR) and yield of CO (CO Y) were recorded simultaneously. To trace the combustion behavior, thermal degradation behavior was analyzed by thermogravimetry (TG). The results indicated that when the uptake of fire retardant chemical above 0.118g/cm3, treated Korean pine wood could meet the fire retardant criterion. Heat release was lowered and heat release rate slow down significantly. TG analysis showed that fire retardant treatment increased thermal stabilization, accelerated carbonization and lowered the decomposition temperature of wood(< 300°C). Wood cellulose decomposed toward carbonation direction at lower temperature, producing more char and correspondingly less flammable volatiles.