Numerical simulation of the fire behaviour of facade equipped with aluminium composite material‐based claddings‐Model validation at large scale

Summary The recent fire events in buildings involving combustible cladding systems have raised concerns regarding the risk that these systems can pose. Understanding such facade fires is complex as they involve a combination of various products and system. Facade fire propagation tests at ISO 13785‐...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fire and materials 2019-12, Vol.43 (8), p.981-1002
Main Authors: Dréan, Virginie, Girardin, Bertrand, Guillaume, Eric, Fateh, Talal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminum
BS8414‐1
Claddings
Composite materials
Computer simulation
facade insulation
Facades
fire propagation
Flammability
Investigations
large scale fire test
Mathematical models
numerical simulation
Propagation
ventilated facade
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Summary:Summary The recent fire events in buildings involving combustible cladding systems have raised concerns regarding the risk that these systems can pose. Understanding such facade fires is complex as they involve a combination of various products and system. Facade fire propagation tests at ISO 13785‐1 intermediate scale were performed on different combinations of aluminium composite material (ACM) claddings and insulants. Simulations were addressed to reproduce these tests and were validated in terms of thermal conditions in the system. This allowed additional investigation and understanding of fire propagation on the facade and more accurate determination of the fire behaviour of the overall system. In this paper, the scaling influence on the fire behaviour of ACM clad systems is investigated with simulations performed to reproduce fire tests at the BS8414‐1 larger scale on three different combinations of ACM and insulants. The contributions of the cladding and insulant were numerically investigated. The fire behaviour of each component and of the overall system is validated by comparison with experiments. Simulations and tests show that the ACM cladding is the most important element driving the global fire behaviour of the systems. In particular, ACM‐PE‐based cladding systems, whatever the insulant, show extensive fire propagation while its degradation affects the integrity of the cavity.
ISSN:0308-0501
1099-1018
DOI:10.1002/fam.2759