Prefabricated polymer panels can provide low-cost, light-weight, structural elements for rapid construction of housing or modular office buildings, but pose fire safety dangers if not flame retarded. Infusion moulded, glass-fibre reinforced polyester (GPRP) panels, 3 or 4 mm thickness, were produced from polyester resin, reinforced with six layers of 410 g/m3 biaxial E-glass, pre-treated to be compatible with polyester resin.
Montmorillonite nanoclay at 5% loading was tested as fire safety treatment. The clay had average particle size c. 10 µm and was surface treated with dimethyl dialkyl amine to enable resin compatibility. The GRFP panels were tested for fire performance according to ISO 9750-1:2013, as required by the Australian building code, that is 4 mm GFRP panels were sandwiched either side of 12mm of polyisocyanurate foam, and also in a simulation of installation in a Netherlands office building. The nanoclay resulted in considerable reductions in heat release rates and proved sufficient to prevent fire developing to flash over in room tests.
“Fire performance of prefabricated modular units using organoclay/glass fibre reinforced polymer composite”, Q. Nguyen et al., Construction and Building Materials 129 (2016) 204–215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.10.100