146

FIRE

FIRE-RESISTANT
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPOSITE MATERIALS, CONSISTING OF REINFORCED CARBON OR GLASS FIBRES IN A
POLYMER RESIN MATRIX, ARE AN ESTABLISHED TECHNOLOGY FOR PRODUCING LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURES.
HOWEVER, CURRENT FIBRE-REINFORCED POLYMER (FRP) COMPOSITES ARE TYPICALLY COMPROMISED TO
VARYING DEGREES WITH RESPECT TO THEIR FIRE PERFORMANCE. THE AIM OF THE FOUR-YEAR EUROPEAN
PROJECT FIRE-RESIST* IS TO DEVELOP STRUCTURAL COMPOSITE MATERIALS THAT EITHER ARE THEMSELVES
FIRE-RESISTANT, OR PROVIDE THE MAXIMUM PROTECTION WITH A MINIMUM WEIGHT PENALTY.

FIRE-RESIST partners
Those

composites

that

currently perform better

in fire tend to be poorer
in other

A
al

lthough

the

benefits

of

using polymer composites in

rail and other transport mode
structur-

applications

respects such as weight, surface finish, or

processability. Yet for trains, planes, and
boats, weight savings in particular translate
into lower operational costs and reduced
energy consumption. Bringing together

the aerospace, maritime, and rail industries,

lightweight, corrosion resistant, ease of

FIRE-RESIST, which runs from February 2011

fabrication of complex shapes the main

up to January 2015, is working to develop

obstacle

is

new material concepts together with ad-

uncertainty over their fire performance,

vanced simulation methodologies to help

says

to reduce the requirement for costly fire

to

are

their

well

wider

known

adoption

Dr George Kotsikos, from FIRE-

RESIST

coordinator

of

testing. Rather than tackling these issues

Newcastle University (U.K.). If it can be

in an isolated, fragmented fashion, there

demonstrated to industry that passenger

is clear merit in a coordinated approach so

safety would not be compromised, then

that experiences, facilities, and solutions

a wider acceptance of the materials in

can be shared across the transport sectors,

prima- ry structural designs would

points out Dr Kotsikos.

acceptable.

NewRail

be

SP Sveriges Tekniska Forskningsinstitut

AB Swerea SICOMP AB
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technologies GmbH

///

industry certification bodies, suppliers of

fire-resistant
produc- ers

composite
of

materials,

composite

mouldings,

developers of new composite materials

The

project

consortium,

led

by

NewRail, consists of 18 partners from

nine

coun- tries, including leading

organisations from the three industries

involved (see box). The rationale was
to bring

together vehi- cle/vessel

manufacturers

ISSUE 27

aforementioned industries, together with

EURAILmag

NewRail Centre for Railway Research of

Newcastle University (coordinator)
EADS Deutschland GmbH Innovation
Works
Bombardier Transportation (UK) Ltd Flensburger
Schiffbau-Gesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
Germanischer Lloyd AG
Cytec Industrial Materials (Derby) Ltd Amorim Cork
Composites SA TransFurans Chemicals BVBA
Anthony, Patrick and Murta Exportao Lda
APC Composite AB
BALance Technology Consulting GmbH PROPLAST
Conzorzio per la Promozione della Cultura Plastica
Fundacin Gaiker
Institut National des Sciences Appliques de Lyon

EURAILmag Business & Technology

from

the

three

and

processes, plus specialists in fire

testing, in fire sim- ulation, and

managing the

risk

of

in

new product

development and introduction.

Funding has been provided to the sum
of 7.8 million, with support provided by

F I R E | 147

the European Commission under its 7th

with tools to engineer the best fire

Framework Programme.

protec- tion regime with minimum weight

penalty. The

FIRE, HEAT & FLAME SPREAD

investigation into new

formulations of

materials is centred

around

follow-

the

ing

three

The less than satisfactory fire

technologies, aspects of some of which are

performance of polymer composites is due

patent pending:

to their organ- ic matrix resins, which first

soften on heating, causing a loss of

Multi-layer
laminates

mechanical properties and then, at higher

These are

temperatures, decompose.

semi- structural material that is bonded

Decomposition results in the production

onto to a

of smoke and toxic or flammable

structural

decomposition products. The latter are

contributes to the structural strength of

not only hazard- ous in terms of lack of

the substrate, but in the case of fire, it

visibility and toxicity; they can also burn,

degrades in a manner that offers maxi- mum

releasing heat, which can lead to flame

protection to the underlying structure.

spread and exacerbate the fire.

New chemical compositions of fire-

metallic

a novel advancement of a
composite or
substrate.

a metallic

The

laminate

The European scope of FIRE-RESIST

sure and heat are applied. The polymer

resistant polymer resins

Furthermore, loaded composite structures often collapse in a fire within a

These will be used for the fabrication of

fibres melt with the heat and the melt

period of minutes, depending on the

composite components and structures,

flows around the glass (or carbon) fibre,

magnitude of the load and heat flux.

without any compromise in mechanical

achieving a very good fibre wet out and

Comparisons in fire performance of

strength.

eventually forming the matrix of the

composite structures are usu- ally made

with steel structures, expands Dr Kotsikos.

technology

Although steel does not burn, it is a good

Commingling

conductor of heat and therefore spreads

reinforcement mats made up of a mixture

fire to adjacent compartments.

of

Composites, on the other hand, do not

polymeric fibres (usually thermoplastic

conduct heat, which limits the spread of

fibres) mingled together. The mat is then

fire, but lose t strength at relatively low

placed in a mould and pres-

glass

composite. New formulations of fire-

Commingling

resistant

(or

refers
car- bon)

to
fibres

fibre

developed

ials

the incorporation of suitable fire

ith

ied

laboratory work to characterise the

proper- ties of said materials at high
temperature;

being

incorporate

novel

and

Structural
surface

lowed for aluminium alloys.

try to elaborate novel, fire-resistant resi

are

Delaminateted surfaces
struscture with low
thermal conductivity

protect systems, in a similar way to the ion

olapproach f

The work of FIRE-RESIST is being carr

ean
out in the U.K. and several other Europ
eUnion countries. It entails fundamental r
e
search activities in understanding the
ed;
fir behaviour of the materials being
misdevelop fundamental research on
ns;
polymer che

to

systems

composite applications.

heir
temperatures. Th is no reason, though, that
ere
composite mater cannot be used in
structural applications w

fibre

New

laminate
fire
test
s on
material
developments 1: structural surface
sam
ples
of
them
;
and
pred
ictiv
e

Bulk composite
laminates

Bulk
composite
model

development

under- standing of

(based

on

the

Composite

Signicant protective
char formation

the fundamental

properties of the new

materials) to

New material developments 2: high char-forming composites

provide designers

EURAILmag Business & Technology

///

ISSUE 27

148

FIRE

consume less energy/fuel in operation,

Consolidate: heat and pressure

cause less damage to the tracks, and prove

=
Fibre reinforcements
(carbon or glass)

Particle-doped re
retarded polymer
bres

pro- duce lower overall

CO emissions,
2
cheaper for operators to run.

Commingled polymer/
reinforcement bre
preform

High-performance reretarded bre

reinforced polymer part

When seeking to build a lighter train, optimising their specifications or their design,
e.g. multifunctional components, joints
and
fixtures,

New material developments 3: particle-doped commingled composites

or

wireless

versus

cabled

technolo- gies, are two valid and proven

approaches; the third is to optimise the
material selec-

Now

reached

such work very difficult to be undertaken

tion. In the rail industry, FRP composite

midterm, some new materials have been

that

the

project

by a single entity. Furthermore, given the

materials are a well-established enabling

elaborated and

complexity and size of the initiative as

technology for lightweighting; indeed, in

trains they are

are

has

currently being

tested under the

materials
reports

characterisation

phase,

Dr Kotsikos.
In the 4th

and final year, the most

promising material developments from

the first three years

will be applied to

relevant transport sector case

study

components, of which at least one will be

designed and prototyped for the rail,
aerospace,

and

marine

sectors,

respectively. These components

also

will be subjected to a full-scale fire test

to vali- date the performance of the
FIRE-RESIST materials.

work

on

technolo- gies

is

the
being

Europe,

the

above

three

carried

out

latter

are

interdependent since the partners make

use of each others facilities to under- take
specific research tasks. A project such as
FIRE-RESIST is one example of the mer- its
of international collaborative research,
points out

Dr Kotsikos, because the

com- plexity of the technologies involved

makes

communication

is

nothing new

in the

is achieving successful

U.K., rolling stock with

FRP doors was

outcomes, as its coordinator confirms:

running from as early

as the 1950s.

There are weekly, or in some instances

Today

daily, e-mail commu- nications between

employed

consortium members focusing on specific

decorative train appli- cations such as

tasks. In addition, regu- lar monthly web

fairings, interior panels, and seat shells.

meetings take place, where partners discuss

But,

results and problems within their work

prototypes,

package. Also, twice a year physi- cal

have yet to significantly penetrate the rail

meetings of the whole consortium take

market, largely due to their relationship

place where progress is presented, and

with fire.

these composites are routinely

for

apart

semi-structural

from

few,

fully structural

and

one-off

composites

vari- ous issues discussed.

By working towards improving the fire

UP

THE

per-

formance

of

FRPs

without

compromising the structural (or wider)

performance

simultaneously at various research centres

around

good

WEIGHING
FACTORS

INTERDEPENDENCY
& COMMUNICATION
While

whole,

instrumen- tal

of

the

composite, FIRE-

Over the past 30 years, trains have

RESIST will make a valuable contribution

gener- ally gotten heavier. This weight

towards

gain

as

resources environmental, financial, and

crashworthiness (e.g. crumple zones),

labour that are certain to become in-

performance (e.g. tilt- ing mechanisms),

creasingly valuable in this generation, and

and passenger comfort, convenience, and

the next

is

due

accessibility

to

(e.g.

factors

power

such

points,

saving

are

strong

commercial

protect-

ing

air

conditioning, and disabled toi- lets). Yet

there

and

Lesley Brown

and

All illustrations FIRE-RESIST unless marked

environmental justifications for seeking to

reduce the

mass.

Compared to their

weight- ier counterparts, lighter rolling

stock would

Intermediate re barrier

*more details can be found at www.fire-resist.eu; the

project can also be followed on Twitter, Facebook,
and has a LinkedIn group

Acknowledgements

pean Commission for supporting the project under the

7th Framework Programme

The FIRE-RESIST partners would like to thank the Euro-

Carriage with re

Safe Carriage for evacuation

ISSUE 27

///

EURAILmag Business & Technology