Fire Performance and Test Methods for ACP External Wall Cladding Technical Report
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INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGIES Fire performance and test methods for ACP external wall cladding Technical Report Author: Nathan White Project number: FE2976 Document Number: EP196619 Date: 14 May 2020 Revision: Revision D Client: Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Commercial-in-confidence Inquiries Inquiries should be addressed to: Team Leader, Fire Engineering Author Client CSIRO Infrastructure CSIRO Infrastructure Department of Environment, Technology Technology Land, Water and Planning Private Bag 33 71 Normanby Road (DELWP) Clayton South, VIC 3169 Clayton, VIC 3190 Telephone +61 3 9545 2777 Telephone +61 3 9545 2777 Document Details Document: Technical Report Project: Fire performance and test methods for ACP external wall cladding Document Number: EP196619 Project number: FE2976 Document Status and Revision History VERSION STATUS DATE DISTRIBUTION FORMAT Revision A WORKING DRAFT 2 December CSIRO PDF Issued for peer review 2019 DELWP Revision B WORKING DRAFT 12 December CSIRO PDF Issued for peer review 2019 DELWP Revision C DRAFT 17 January CSIRO PDF Issued for peer review 2020 DELWP Revision D FINAL 14 May 2020 CSIRO PDF Issued with response to DELWP peer review comments Document Authorisation AUTHOR REVIEWED BY AUTHORISED BY Nathan White Alex Webb Alex Webb 14 May 2020 14 May 2020 14 May 2020 Copyright and disclaimer © 2020 CSIRO To the extent permitted by law, all rights are reserved and no part of this publication covered by copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means except with the written permission of CSIRO. Important disclaimer This document is a report prepared for Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. The document may not be copied, altered or published in any form without prior written approval of CSIRO. CSIRO advises that the information contained in this publication comprises general statements based on scientific research. The reader is advised and needs to be aware that such information may be incomplete or unable to be used in any specific situation. No reliance or actions must therefore be made on that information without seeking prior expert professional, scientific and technical advice. To the extent permitted by law, CSIRO (including its employees and consultants) excludes all liability to any person for any consequences, including but not limited to all losses, damages, costs, expenses and any other compensation, arising directly or indirectly from using this publication (in part or in whole) and any information or material contained in it. Contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. ix 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 12 1.1 Project ............................................................................................................................ 12 1.2 Client .............................................................................................................................. 12 1.3 Scope of work ................................................................................................................. 12 1.4 Sources of information .................................................................................................... 13 1.5 Limitations ...................................................................................................................... 14 1.6 List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... 15 2 Types of Aluminium Composite Panel ....................................................................................... 18 2.1 Definition of ACP ............................................................................................................. 18 2.2 PE Core ACP with various amounts of mineral filler ......................................................... 20 2.3 ACP with other polymer core types ................................................................................. 29 2.4 Aluminium Bonded Laminated Materials ......................................................................... 30 3 NCC BCA Requirements relating to fire safety of ACP applied to external walls ......................... 33 3.1 Current Class 2-9 requirements ....................................................................................... 33 4 Australian State-based bans, ministerial guidelines and the like applied to ACP ........................ 47 5 Reaction to fire tests applicable to ACP ..................................................................................... 56 5.1 Australia ......................................................................................................................... 57 5.2 International ................................................................................................................... 58 6 Material Characterisation testing for ACP.................................................................................. 60 6.1 The purpose of Materials Characterisation testing for ACP .............................................. 60 6.2 Sampling of ACP for Materials characterisation tests ....................................................... 60 6.3 Types of Material Characterisation testing ...................................................................... 62 6.4 What Material Characterisation tests are Australian Laboratories currently applying. ..... 78 6.5 Permanent Labelling for ACP ........................................................................................... 79 6.6 Generalised analysis of CSIRO material characterisation testing conducted on ACP ......... 80 7 Known performance of ACP in fire tests .................................................................................... 83 7.1 Small scale tests .............................................................................................................. 83 7.2 Room corner tests ........................................................................................................... 92 7.3 Intermediate scale tests .................................................................................................. 93 7.4 Full scale tests ............................................................................................................... 104 8 Past Fire incidents involving ACP ............................................................................................. 110 8.1 Three ACP fire incidents that had an important impact on Australia .............................. 110 8.2 Key findings from review of past ACP fires..................................................................... 119 9 Summary Conclusions for each section ................................................................................... 120 9.1 Types of ACP ................................................................................................................. 120 9.2 NCC BCA requirements.................................................................................................. 121 9.3 Australian State-based bans, ministerial guidelines and the like applied to ACP............. 122 Fire performance and test methods for ACP external wall cladding Report EP196619| i Copyright CSIRO 2020 This report may only be reproduced in full. Alteration of this report without written authorisation from CSIRO is forbidden. 9.4 Reaction to fire tests applicable to ACP ......................................................................... 124 9.5 Material Characterisation testing for ACP. ..................................................................... 125 9.6 Known Performance of ACP in fire tests. ....................................................................... 126 9.7 Past fire incidents involving ACP. ................................................................................... 127 10 General Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 129 11 Knowledge gaps and recommendations for further research. ................................................. 132 12 References .............................................................................................................................. 133 Fire performance and test methods for ACP external wall cladding Report EP196619| ii Copyright CSIRO 2020 This report may only be reproduced in full. Alteration of this report without written authorisation from CSIRO is forbidden. Fire performance and test methods for ACP external wall cladding Report EP196619| iii Copyright CSIRO 2020 This report may only be reproduced in full. Alteration of this report without written authorisation from CSIRO is forbidden. Figures Figure 1.Typical ACP with 100% PE core[8] .............................................................................................. 18 Figure 2. ACP Flat Stick installation (photo by CSIRO) ............................................................................. 20 Figure 3: Cassette mount installation onto column (Photo by CSIRO) ..................................................... 20 Figure 4. Total global production of various types of plastics in 2015 (PE represented by LDPE and HDPE) [10] .........................................................................................................................................................