Improved fire performance for wood-based products

In many building and construction applications, ordinary wood cannot be used due to its natural combustibility.However, wood-based products with improved fire performance can meet even very stringent requirements, thus extending the usability of wood as a building material.Three assessment tools for the evaluation of improvements in fire performance of wood-based products are introduced in this paper.The first tool is based on material properties having an influence on fire performance, and it estimates the change of fire performance that can realistically be achieved by a given change of an actuating quantity.The second tool offers simple rules of thumb according to which the reaction-to-fire classification of a wood product can be estimated on the basis of a small-scale fire test.The third tool is based on a one-dimensional thermal flame spread model, applied to predict the heat release rate in the classification test on the basis of small-scale test data. An example of wood products with improved fire properties developed using these tools is phenol coated birch plywood including an aluminium layer of an optimized thickness to protect the veneers.This product has possibilities to meet the requirements of Euroclass B.