Citation

Schroeder RA, Williamson RB. Fire Mater. 2000; 24(4): 167-177.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The objective of this research was to assess scientifically to what extent fire damaged gypsum wallboard (GWB) could be used to identify time, temperature and heat flux exposures of the incipient stages of an uncontrolled fire. Gypsum wallboard is commonly used on vertical and ceiling surfaces that frequently survive a building: fire so permiting samples of the GWB to be removed for post-fire analysis. The gypsum (calcium sulphate dihydrate) is a hydrated cystalline mineral that is chemically very stable and undergoes phase changes at temperatures found in the incipient stages of a building fire. Experiments are described in this paper that support the theory that thermally induced changes in GWB provide a quantitative method for determining time/temperature regimes that have occurred in a building fire.