Post-fire structural properties of burnt GRP plates

The flexural and compressive properties of glass reinforced polyester (GRP) plates after exposure to fire are investigated. Large plates of the GRP composite were exposed to a kerosene fuel tray fire for times up to 10 min. The plates suffered thermally induced damage which increased with exposure time and consisted of charring, due to combustion of the polyester matrix, and delamination cracking. The residual flexural and compressive properties were measured at room temperature, and were found to decrease rapidly with increasing exposure time. It is shown that the post-fire structural properties can be approximated by modelling the burnt plate as a bi-layer material using a rule-of-mixtures formulation. It is proposed that the models can be used to estimate the structural deterioration after a fire of flat single-skin plates used in GRP ship construction. Crown © 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.