FIRE PERFORMANCE OF PLYWOOD TREATED WITH CHEMICAL SURFACE BARRIER

Abstract

Generally wood and wood based materials are combustible, easily ignitable, can propagate heat and flame spread, produce dense smoke in fires. These materials can be used in buildings as lining materials in spite of their inferior behavior in fire. To render them flame retardant, we studied & prepared a new chemical surface barrier which not only improves the flame retardancy of these materials but also makes them fire safe. The paper uniquely focuses on the study of an effective chemical surface barrier after treatment and appropriate curing. It should provide better “reaction to fire” characteristics to Plywood in a building fire. Reaction to fire characteristics include: Ignitability, Fire Propagation Index, Surface Spread of Flame and Specific Optical Density of Smoke.