Testing of aluminium composite panels in a cone calorimeter : a new specimen preparation method

Fire testing data consistency and repeatability are essential for regulatory scrutiny, product development, and fire modelling of the lightweight cladding system. Lightweight composite claddings such as aluminium composite panels (ACPs) have been challenging to assess in terms of combustibility and flammability due to their sandwiched composite structures, which led to inconsistent data during bench-scale fire testing and fire risk assessment. This study aims to improve the test data consistency of reaction-to-fire properties such as time to ignition (tign), peak heat release rate (pHRR), time to peak heat release rate (tpHRR), total heat release (THR), which are the critical parameters for fire assessment and regulatory screening of the ACP claddings used in buildings. Therefore, a modified test approach is proposed in this study to facilitate the proper combustion process with the formation of a steady fuel gas/air mixture during the testing of cladding panel. The test data repeatability, standard deviation (SD) and relative standard deviation percentage (RSD%) of reaction-to-fire properties have been improved significantly with the modified test approach compared with the existing test approach.