Design And Characterization Of Fire-Resistant And Heat Insulation Composite Fabric

On the base of analyzing and comparing varieties of existed reflective materials, fire-resistant materials,and thermal storage materials,a new high thermal resistant composite fabric has been upgraded and developed.As far as the existing fire-protective fabric it’s a new structural fabric with great potential use in firefighting and military,and an improvement in the design of fireproof and insulate fabric.As an important component of the protective clothing,fire-protective fabric had always been in a public attention.For several factors,the development of fire-protective fabric stayed focused on the thermal radiation reduction,but without actually contacting with high temperature flame.In recent years,an increasing number of researches about aramid fiber came out and series of new fire-protective fabric designed while it was emerging.These fabrics,which can survive short period of time when exposed to 300℃～400℃flame or 800℃～1000℃heat radiation,but will melt in spontaneously with access to 600℃or even more.In such a background,this research made some technical researches in the fire-protective fabric and come up with a new high performance thermal insulation fabric,which can survive the 800℃flame for about 8 minutes.This research designed a new multi-layer composite fabric,with close reference to the structure of fire service appea1、industrial and space insulation material.Its structure was;i) Heat-reflective layer;Aluminum film was used to reflect radiant heat,effectively reducing the heat flux fabric received;ii)Aluminum supporting layer;Basalt or asbestos fabrics were used to support aluminum film,as well as insulating the heat flow; iii)Heat stock layer;Used PCM which absorb heat flux as soon as possible to prevent the fabric structure from damage brought by intensive heat; and iv)Heat insulating layer;Used basalt or asbestos fabric to insulate the residual heat.To characterize its heat insulation and fire resistant performance,a set of apparatus was invented for the measurements in fire,depending on the difference of fabric thickness, a series of fabrics were made.On the base of testing fabrics’ fireproof and insulate performance and comparing samples’ heat insulation effect,make choose of the most heat insulation effective fabric structure on.Then tested and compared samples’ mechanics performance after them met with fire.The experimental results show that;i)Asbestos fabrics will evaporate fiber adsorbing water at 800℃,it can maintain the stability of heat insulation effect in about 6 minutes,the asbestos fabric begin to collapse when the crystal water and structure water evaporated,the fabrics’ thermal protective effects decline,ultimately disintegrate; ii)Basalt fabrics has no apparent weight lost phenomenon at 800℃,it can maintain the stability of heat insulation effect in about 8 minutes,after the basalt crystal decomposition,the fabrics’ heat insulation effect decline,and disintegrate in the end; iii)Asbestos,basalt composite fabric has slightly outstanding heat insulate effect compared with asbestos fabrics,but asbestos decompose after the water evaporation and fabric damage.Which influence the fabric heat insulation properties.Summing up the above topic,the final choice used the basalt fabric as main fabrics. And the 2.56mm thickness fabric had the most effective heat insulation effect.Mechanical properties testing on the fabric guarantee at least 8 min effective use time.Problems;①Aluminum’s melting point is too low,it is easy to melt overheating if the internal layer does not conduct heat effectively;②Heat transmit between layers was not good as expected.If heat transmit delayed,for example,flame strike、body move,heat transmit unstable,which will work to PCM can’t absorb heat in time and aluminum film melt.③K₂Ti₆O₁₃whisker can not be used as heat-reflective layer,which heat-resistant temperature is at 1300℃,so if it can be used as the reflective material,the heat-insulation properties of fabric will be better.