Experimental study on fire behaviors of external thermal insulation composite system under vertical radiation

Using a vertical thermal radiator, we perform a set of experiments on the external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) and pure extruded polystyrene (XPS). Several important parameters, including time to ignition, mass loss, and sample temperature, were measured. The combustion degree of XPS used during the experiments was B1 and B2. Results show that the whole burning process can be divided into 3 typical stages. Because of the protection effect of the outer layer of ETICS, the burning process of ETICS was noticeably different from that of pure XPS. The experimental results indicated that the protection effect of the outer layer weakened the difference between B1 and B2 flame‐retardant XPS. The time to ignition was increased under the effect of outer layer, while the core material (XPS) was easier to be ignited when the outer layer falls out. The research results are useful to the theoretical and numerical study on the fire characteristics of foamed polymer under vertical thermal radiation condition.