Continual development of internal combustion engines and fuel tanks packaged close to passengers—along with the rising prevalence of high energy density batteries and compressed gases—have led to increased concerns for passenger safety in vehicle fires. We propose using intumescent materials to protect passengers and minimize fire spread. This talk will discuss Sandia National Laboratories' recent efforts to develop a vehicle thermal protection system using intumescent material, including fire characterization, thermal model development, and durability testing of this coating used as a thermal protection system.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Spray-on intumescent coatings are widely used in large structural applications on buildings and other special applications such as oil rigs to meet various code requirements for the structure's survivability in uncontrolled fire situations. Their use is mainly tied to the coating's ability to prevent these large assemblies from collapsing under the extreme heat of a fire. It is feasible that these same coatings can have an alternate or dual-purpose to extinguish fires in tight spaces and minimize heat transfer to passenger compartments. Intumescent coatings can be applied around engine bays, fuel tanks, battery packs, compressed gas systems to isolate heat from an uncontrolled fire and—in some circumstances—to sequester oxygen from the fire, effectively extinguishing it. Doing so in the early stages of a catastrophic, uncontrolled fire can allow more time for individuals injured in a crash or other abnormal scenario to leave the vicinity of the vehicle. Isolating fires can also mitigate other destructive and dangerous scenarios such as preventing thermal runaway events in batteries, keeping a small fire in an engine bay from destroying the motor and rest of the body, stopping a compressed gas tank from bursting, etc.&nbsp;The development of thermal barriers in transportation applications by Sandia has shown that thin-layered, spray-on intumescent coatings can withstand the demands of shock, vibration, rain, freeze, heat, gravel, humidity environments that consumer, commercial and military vehicles must survive. Furthermore,&nbsp;domestic and foreign supply chains are well developed in the creation and application of these coatings that can be applied automatically in assembly lines at a minimal cost after the initial development process. Thus, industry manufacturers and production agencies can leverage the existing engineering capabilities to design and apply these coatings to their products. Large coating industry companies have shown that they are willing to work with other commercial and government entities to develop unique, intumescent material products for vehicle protection. Thus, making the incorporation of this technology into products less prohibitive.

Thin Intumescent Coatings as a Fire Suppression System

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2021/volume/85369

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