The Experimental Study of Fire Behavior of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) on Masonry Brick Prism

Abstract

Heating equipment, cooking equipment, electrical and lighting equipment, smoking materials, and intentional fire starting are the five most prevalent causes of fires in commercial buildings, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The most essential factor is the construction materials, which can cause or avoid a fire. The focus of the research should be on passive fire safety as well as aggressive fire safety to prevent flames from spreading. The purpose of this article was to investigate the fire resistance of structural masonry prism using PVC (polyvinyl chloride) wall panels due to its high fire resistance and also we can use it as an interior finishing material. All organic polymers are combustible: if enough heat is applied to them, they will thermally break down and their thermal decomposition products will burn. When the source of heat or flame is removed, however, PVC usually does not burn. Because PVC contains 56.8% chlorine in its basic polymer weight, and chlorine is one of the few components that confer strong fire characteristics to a polymer. PVC can still be specified for applications at 130°F (54.4°C), the material can withstand significantly less pressure at elevated temperatures (those above 73°F or 22.8°C) Structural materials.Masonry prisms are built for compressive strength testing according to the ASTM C1388 Standard Test methods to research the fire behavior of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as a wall assembly in structures by using compressive strength testing machine. For the making of one masonry prisms of dimensions, 9’’x 9’’x12’’there are 8 bricks required of mortar ratio of 1:4. And using this ratio we make 9 masonry prisms for 3 trials. The research shows that, even when exposed to high temperatures, brick/masonry prismstrength had a significant impact on the structural stability and fire resistance time of the panels (under load). The PVC encasement was found to improve the thermal insulation characteristic, which is one of the fire resistance performance requirements.