Gulf Construction Online - IFC clears air on composite panels

Fire Protection

A raging fire and (right) delaminated composite panels on fire.

IFC clears air on composite panels

Peter E Jackman, technical director of the UK-based International Fire Consultants, attempts to clear the air regarding composite insulated panels that have been blamed for the rapid spread of fires.

01 March 2006

Composite insulated panels of the type allegedly involved in the recent fires in the Gulf such as the 'Oasis Centre (used for the construction of ductwork and also in the construction of retail centres) have many advantages in construction but also three major disadvantages in the event of a fire: they can delaminate, they are combustible and generate large amounts of smoke.

Composite panels predominantly involve being glued together, which maybe in the form of auto adhesion (when the panels are made from polyurethane or polyisocyanurate foam) or by the application of polyurethane adhesives, when other slabbed core materials are used such as polystyrene or mineral rock fibre. In the event of a fire, this makes them uniquely vulnerable because delamination occurs at a fairly early stage, what in fire engineering terms is known as the pre flashover condition, and this exposes the core to the initial ignition event.
Secondly, these core materials are frequently combustible and being foamed polymeric, they also have a very high rate of heat release and finally many of them have the capability of generating high volumes of very obscuring smoke, some of which can be highly toxic.
Combustible cored composite panels came close to being banned in the UK approximately 10 years ago. Following a number of high-profile fires in large commercial storage buildings and food factories, fire-fighters and insurers alike clamoured for them to be prohibited. However, as these panels were, at that time, almost exclusively restricted to being used in commercial and factory-type buildings, they were not seen to warrant such extreme action.
The last five years however have seen a change in their use and more and more are being used for the construction of buildings with high population and are even considered to be a sleeping risk.
International Fire Consultants (IFC), one of the leading fire consultancy practices in the world, was enlisted to help the insulated building industry to develop safe methods of using these composite panels. Despite their potential fire problems, they have many advantages in practice, including their ability to be used in long lengths capable of spanning quite long dimensions without intermediate support, their light weight and speedy construction, resulting in substantial costs savings to the developer and builder.

Fire stable certification
It was the European division of the International Association for Cold Storage Construction (IACSC), a major industry utilising such panels that first enlisted the IFC Group to help in the drafting of the associations' guide on the subject of fire safety in these buildings. The guide is entitled 'Design, Construction, Specification and Fire Management of Insulated Envelopes for Temperature-controlled Environments.'
In studying the fire issue, IFC soon recognised that there were no good or bad panel core materials, just that some panels that were specified for the wrong risk and other panels are poorly made. Unfortunately, composite panel-constructed buildings were built conventionally, not taking into account the different modes of failure that these panels could produce.
IFC then worked alongside the UK Fire Service and the Fire Safety Regulators to produce the guide that promoted the 'fire stable' methods of constructing elements using composite panels. Together with the construction industry, it developed a Fire Stable Certification Scheme for such constructions that could be provided with a conformity certificate to show they met the higher build standards. This also led to the need to identify them on-site and that eventually developed into the IFC/IACSC joint labelling schemes for panels, which allows the building control or fire authorities to immediately recognise what the core of these composite panels is made of and hence have an idea of the fire risk that they represent. At the same time, they also can easily identify visually those panels that complied with the 'new' fire stable build requirements. The embodiment of these principles into the IACSC guide has resulted in it being referenced in the official guidance to both the England and Wales and Scottish building regulations. Compliance with the guide's recommendations is deemed to satisfy the regulatory objectives in the UK.
Composite panels now take the form of sandwich panels, structural insulated panels (SIPS), or cladding systems and these are used for retail centres, schools, residential buildings, prisons, factories and offices, among other facilities. The Gulf states could follow the lead that the UK has given and adopt similar recommendations, possibly even going so far as to make it a requirement for fire stability conformity and the panel labelling systems to be adopted throughout the Gulf construction industry.
Fire-fighters should never be faced with the severity of the fires that they faced during the last couple of months of last year. Now is the time to do something about it, before the uses of these panels proliferate through the Gulf region.
Fortunately, the fire stable methods recommended to the IACSC by the IFC can be introduced retrospectively and so any current non-conforming construction can be fairly easily upgraded, preventing the need for mass replacements.
Being able to solve the risks associated with these types of insulated panels is one thing, but however, where there are walls, there are also doors to allow the passage between areas. These doors and door openings need to be treated with as much care and attention as the panels themselves as indeed do any such openings or penetrations through the panel.

Assured certification
In the GCC, at present, there are at least five different products being offered to the civil defence regulatory sections by bodies that allow the manufacturers to demonstrate that they have tested, assessed and quality assured their product, such as timber or metal fire doors.
However – as sometimes exists in a competitive market – not all such 'schemes' offer the same level of assurance or indeed cover the manufacturing processes to the same depth. While all the schemes currently in the market place offer a degree of assurance, however, it is vitally important for the person or body being presented with a certificate to fully check the validity and coverage certification, to make sure that it includes the product or size of product that they wish to use within their structure. Often, 'certificates' are presented to potential clients/regulators in the hope that the reader will not look too deeply into the coverage, as many 'certificates' are very limited in their scope of approval.
It is recommended that all certificates clearly demonstrate the extent of coverage and not have this vital information hidden from the casual reader, in an attempt at gaining sales or use of products that are unable to demonstrate the necessary life safety performance in the case of a fire. Furthermore, it is recommended that a national accreditation body such as the UK's United Kingdom Accreditation Agency (UKAS) should suitably attest all such 'certficates' for authentication purposes.

Scope expands
Following extensive work by its team of engineers, technologists and quality assurance professionals, IFC Certification has recently announced that UKAS has granted a further extension to its scope of certification, so as to include metal fire doors, door-closing devices and smoke-barrier devices. With this extension and following the success it has achieved in the Far and the Middle East, IFC Certification plans to further promote its range of services to the fire products industry across the globe.
IFC's new business areas have already attracted enquiries from companies both in the UK and the Middle East. IFC’s team has also been recently expanded with the arrival of Chris Houchen, who has earlier worked for both TRDA's Chiltern Fire and BM TRADA certification testing.
"After extensive work on producing scheme documents, which are both technically robust and pragmatic, we are pleased to have passed the rigours of a UKAS assessment and with the inclusion of Chris within the company as associate director, we look forward to increasing the number of certifications on boards.