Products

Fire Protection Fibres (IGNIS)

(Passive Fire Protection System)

“...significantly reduces explosive spalling in concrete” Concrete is the most widely used construction material on earth and has proved to be very durable under most conditions.

Due to several recent tunnel fires in Europe and the increased threat of terrorism public attention has been focused on the performance of structures both above and below the ground. Passive Fire Protection applies to both the safety of people and the safety of the structures. Structural integrity in the event of a fire will also have an impact upon the safety of people when heavy objects and/or hot spalled concrete falls on people.

Although concrete is non-combustible and has low thermal diffusivity, it does experience explosive spalling from the build up of pore pressure and internal tensile stresses during a fire. Polypropylene fibres when mixed in concrete will increase permeability during heating thus reducing pore pressure and the risk of spalling. In the early 1990's ADFIL's polypropylene fibres were used on the Heidrun oil platform project. Concrete was enhanced with polypropylene fibre to reduce the potential effects of explosive spalling in the event of a fire.

Since then various tunnel contracts in Europe have been constructed with concrete containing Ignis. Testing on structures now concludes that concrete containing polypropylene fibres will be a necessity in the future.