أرضيات الايبوكسي Metallic Epoxy

Architects, Designers, and Specification writers propose different materials while they are outlining their designs, and drafting specifications. The proposed materials are classified under different categories according to building regulations, safety authorities and material science, mainly depending on material behavior under possible and specific events through property operation and construction lifecycle.

Hence, I’m going to explore material behavior in reaction to fire, as we can classify the material—mainly—into two categories (Combustible and Non-Combustible Material). Reaction to fire means how the material ignites and burns in a fire event.

Understanding how the material surface burning behaves within a fire event includes three main aspects:

🔹 Flame spread.
🔹 Smoke development.
🔹 Ignitability.

It is mandatory to understand materials' behavior under combustion, for the sake of detailing the strategies for managing flames and smoke properly, and to evaluate the proposed material "surface burning characteristics" in fire events, based on the project requirements scale.

At construction projects in general and façade packages in particular, especially when we have fire-rated or fire-retardant material requirements, there are two key factors related to the material surface burning characteristics that should be taken into consideration during a fire event:
🔹 Flame Spread Index (FSI).
🔹 Smoke Development Index (SDI).

These two important indices, in MEA and worldwide could be defined and tested through several standards of buildings’ codes for materials surface burning characteristics like:

🔹ASTM E84.
🔹 UL 723 (ANSI/NFPA 255).
🔹 EN 13501-1 (EN 13823 (Single Burning Item Test) & EN ISO 11925-2 (Ignitability Test).

The first two references above test materials in the same way using the Tunnel Test. While EN 13501-1 which replaced the old British BS 476-7 standard for flame spread, referring to EN 13823 & EN ISO 11925-2 uses different and more detailed approaches to asses reaction to fire and ignitability, closer to real-life fire scenarios.

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Written by Jehad Alkhandaq.