The Thermal Response of Intumescent Coating Under Different Combinations of External Heat Fluxes

Abstract

In this study, the heat-blocking performance of intumescent coating under various combinations of external radiative and convective heat fluxes is investigated numerically. The results show that the temperature distribution and heat fluxes near the coating surface are significantly affected by the heat-source combination, and consequently, the thermal responses of coating are different. For the same magnitude of convective heat source, the higher flame temperature (lower heat convection coefficient) has larger thermal effect on coating response. For the same magnitude of heat source, the radiative heat source generates more thermal response of coating than the convective one. Moreover, if the external heat flux is not intense enough to cause large expansion ratio (2 < xL/L < 11) in 3600 s, the combination of heat source can significantly affect the substrate temperature and the total heat flux at the coating surface. However, if the expansion ratio is sufficiently large (xL/L > 11) at the quasi-steady-state (3600 s), the substrate temperature and the total heat flux are independent of the combination of heat source, which only affects the temperature and the radiative and convective heat fluxes near the coating surface (∼3 mm in this study).