A Study on the Diffusion of Vertical Fire in a Real Scale Type by Stone and Aluminum Panel Finishing Materials

Abstract

When a fire is completely developed, it expands from the inside of the building to the outside through any opening (s) and spreads to the building exterior, resulting in the loss of many lives and properties. As fire safety performance is affected by the construction methods applied and components of building insulation and finishing materials, this study compared and analyzed the internal and external fire spread performances according to the performance of the insulation material (polyurethane) and types of finishing materials. In this study, a cone calorimeter test was conducted according to the KS F ISO 5660-1 standard, and a full-scale mock-up test of exterior wall composite finishing materials was conducted based on the KS F 8414 standard. Consequently, the total heat release (THR) of polyurethane for 10 min after the start of heating was 5.51 MJ/m². No vertical fire spread occurred in both test specimens to which a stone panel and an aluminum sheet panel were applied; however, the fire spread to the cavity, causing a temperature rise.