In recent decades, disastrous accidents caused by damage of steel structure in fire have reminded people of the risk of fire in buildings. One of the most used systems to protect metallic structures is intumescent paint. This paper  investigates the fire performance of phenyl silicone coating to protect steel against fire using two lab-scale tests : one based on the torch test (convective heat) and a heat radiator test (radiative heat). It was shown that the performance of the silicone based coating can be improved incorporating a siloxane modifier and reaches that of intumescent paint in convective fire test. The thermal conductivity of the coatings was measured versus temperature (from ambient to 500�C). The low values obtained (0.14 � 0.01 W/K.m at 300�C) associated to the high expansion were attributed to be responsible of the good fire protective properties of the coating.

Thermal degradation and fire performance of silicone-based coatings

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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