The Building
Regulations require certain elements of
structure to have fire resistance for a
specified minimum period of time. The
amount of fire protection to achieve
this depends on the following:
1)
Duration of fire resistance
specified
2) Type of protection used
3) Perimeter of the steel
section exposed to fire
4) Shape and size of the
steel section
To
determine how these factors
affect fire resistance, all
Promat products and systems
have
been
tested at accredited
laboratories to a variety of
standards, e.g. BS 476: Part
21, AS 1530: Part 4, DIN
4102 and ASTM E119.
Tests
in accordance with BS 476 :
Part 21 have been performed
on loaded beams and columns
clad with fire protection
material. Steel surface
temperatures are monitored
with thermocouples to assess
the performance of the
cladding, since steel fully
stressed in accordance with
BS 449 or BS 5950, Part 1,
begins to lose its design
margin of safety at
temperatures around 550°C.
A
range of unloaded sections
have also been tested to
obtain data for calculating
analytically, with the aid
of a computer, exactly how
much protection is needed
for the most common steel
sections and for providing
fire resistance for
different time periods.
