Fire reactions of ceramic and polymer moulding composites

Low cost ceramic dough moulding compounds/composites (CDMC) are composed of inorganic metal silicates and chopped fibre reinforcements. This paper investigates the fire reactions of these materials under severe thermal and heat conditions. This research is targeted to potential applications in the replacement of glass fibre reinforced polymeric insulation materials such as phenolic composites as engine heat shields which experience high temperature and heat transmission. The materials developed can provide good properties, including heat insulation with high thermal stability for engine drafts, where traditional glass/phenolic composites were used and gave a very short life cycle. This work compares the thermal properties of the glass fibre reinforced phenolic composites and metal silicate composites produced under the same processing conditions. The results show that CDMC possesses significantly better thermal stability and heat resistance in comparison with phenolic moulding composite (phenolic dough moulding composites). The indication was that under the testing condition of heat flux of 75?kW?m-2 intended for materials used for applications in marine, transport and possibly nuclear waste immobilisation, the integration of the CDMC was kept intact and survived as a high temperature insulation material. © 2010 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute.