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Author
Parra Rogero, Carlos de la
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The use of intumescent paints as a fire protection system for steel structures has become more and more common in recent years due to its many advantages. These paints react to exposure to heat by swelling and forming a highly porous insulating layer that prevents the spread of heat and slows the rise in temperature in the steel structure. However, intumescent paints must provide protection against fire for a long period of time.
In this study, the effects that environmental conditions such as sunlight, dust, or corrosive environments, such as industrial areas, may have on the properties of intumescent paints have been investigated. Thus, the main objective of the research was to determine the behavior of the system after aging tests, including accelerated aging by exposure to UV light, immersion in acid, and natural aging. The durability of the coating was analyzed from the level of protection against the fire of steel plates protected by a DFT of 1 mm of intumescent coating exposed to heat fluxes of 25 kW / m2 and 50 kW / m2 in a cone calorimeter. Tests such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), temperature-time curves, paint efficiency, and characterization of the insulating layer generated have allowed any change due to aging to be established. The experimental results show that the paint was resistant to UV exposure, maintaining fire resistance. However, after erosion of the paint in acid, it lost its expansion capacity, resulting in an increase in the temperature of the steel compared to the unaged samples. With respect to the naturally aged samples, they presented different behavior according to the heat flux applied. However, degradation in the properties of the intumescent layer was observed.
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