Test Data on Intumescent Fire Protection for Structural Steel Sections in Thailand

Current fire safety regulations in Thailand require that primary structural steel components of buildings be protected to achieve a minimum of 3-hour fire-resistance rating. For steel roof structures, 1-hour or 2-hour fire-resistance ratings may be specified depending on the number of stories. The verification methods of fire-resistance ratings set forth in the regulations are ISO 834 and ASTM E119 standards. The current trend of fire protection system for steel structures is intumescent paint due to aesthetical reasons. However, the fire-resistance ratings attained by proprietary intumescent systems currently available in the market are inconclusive. It is therefore the aim of this paper to provide an insight of the fire-resistance ratings of different intumescent products based on the data collected from the fire tests conducted by the Fire Safety Research Center of Chulalongkorn University during the period of 2009 - 2011. A statistical analysis was also conducted to compare the test data with the fire-resistance ratings specified in the current fire safety regulations.