Geopolymer foam as a passive fire protection

Cracow University of Technology, Institute of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 37 Jana Pawła II St., 31-864 Cracow, Poland

^* Corresponding author: dariusz.mierzwinski@mech.pk.edu.pl

Abstract

More than 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines were involved in battling the blaze of Grenfell Tower in June 2017. Despite the heroic efforts of fire brigades the more than 80 people died. In the expert opinion the reason such size of the tragedy were the cladding - installed on in a recent renovation - has come under scrutiny, with experts saying a more fire-resistant type could have been used. The use of such type of cladding was probably price. The main motivation of research work is to develop cheap and fire resistant material for buildings and applications in civil engineering structures. The main aim of the research was development of foamed geopolymers based on fly ash and investigation their properties. The research methods used were: coefficient thermal conductivity test, fire-resistant test, visual analyses, density measurement and compressive strength test. The results show the foamed geopolymers has low coefficient thermal conductivity between 0.068 and 0.126 W/(m·K). They have excellent fire and heat resistant facilities, including resistance of this type of materials to the erosive action of fire. Moreover, they have reasonable mechanical properties - they were characterized by compressive strength between 0.5 and 3.5 MPa depending on the density, which ranged from 250 to 700 kg/m³. The conducted research confirmed that geopolymers have the highest fire resistance classes and can be used on a wide scale as a material for protection against various types of fire and as fire-resistant insulation materials in construction.