Fire Tests on Plasterboard/Cellular Plastics Insulating Panels

Small-scale fire and smoke test results are sometimes used — and the results interpreted – beyond their significance to choose materials for use in constructions and to reject others. When this happens, data from other small-scale tests are rarely adequate to correct the erroneous position. Instead, a quantum jump to more realistic tests is needed.

A U.K. specifying authority was influenced by test performance claims made for Phenolic Foam to impose a ban on any other rigid foam in plasterboard laminate lining boards for refurbishing its housing property.

This paper describes a real fire simulation test devised and used to compare the behaviour of 2.4 m X 1.2 m panels with plasterboard facings and respectively phenolic, polyurethane, polyisocyanurate, EPS and XPS foam insulant backings. The fire simulated the severity of a burning upholstered armchair, and reached a heat flux of over 10 W/cm². Temperatures, stack gas compositions and smoke measurements combined to show that none of the foam insulants introduced significantly more hazard to house occupants than was presented by the fire source.

This work was successful in its aim, and was specially novel in illustrating the co-operation possible between distinct and normally competitive industry groups. It demonstrated a way to share out to individual organisations the high costs of large-scale test work – granting even more economy to separate manufacturers – and underlined an importance for trade associations not yet fully exploited.