Evaluation of Common Ignition Models for Use with Marine Cored Composites

With the adoption of the High Speed Craft Code the importance of fire safety analytical tools has been elevated. Input data such as ignition properties of cored composite panels will be needed to simulate surface flame spread behaviour. The ease of customizing cored panels for high speed craft means that numerous panel systems are possible on one craft. Understanding how skin thickness and core composition effect ignition is important for efficient evaluation of ignition properties and for fire safety design simulations. To study the effect of skin thickness and core composition, ten material systems were evaluated in a Cone Calorimeter at applied heat fluxes of 20 kWm super(-2) to 90 kWm super(-2). The systems were a balsa core panel (core thickness 9.5 mm) with three different GRP skins, 1.5 mm, 3 mm and 8 mm, each of the three skins over a copper substrate, the three skins over a ceramic fibreboard substrate and a thermally thick GRP skin. Over the range of applied heat fluxes a change in GRP behaviour from thermally thick to non-thick was observed. The sensitivity of three simple ignition models to this change was investigated. It was found that the ignition models were not able to resolve the effect of skin thickness and core composition.