Theoretical Modeling of Intumescent Fire-Retardant Materials

A theoretical model is developed to predict the thermochemical be havior of intumescent fire-retardant coatings. The model is based on the assump tion that the intumescent reaction is analogous to the phase change process occurring over a finite temperature range. From the numerical results, it is found that the histories of the substrate temperature can be accurately predicted by choosing adequate pseudo latent heat and temperature range for the intumes cent reaction, and the bending evidence observed in experiments can be success fully predicted by the present intumescence model. Finally, it is shown that the present model can readily be extended to simulate the intumescent process with multi-intumescent zones.