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Masonry Industry Promotion Group
In the News Fire Tests Prove Masonry Advantage Recent laboratory tests on gypsum and masonry walls highlight the dramatic - even life-threatening - difference between a material's fire ratings and its actual performance in a real fire.
The April tests were conducted at independent Omega Point Laboratories in San Antonio, Texas on two common types of gypsum walls and AAC block, and followed the two-phased protocol of ASTM E-119, "Standard Test Methods for Fire Tests of Building Construction and Materials". The two phases involved a fire endurance (furnace) test, immediately followed by water application from a hose, which shows how a wall holds up in firefighting situations. Both gypsum walls disintegrated during the water test. Yet, both walls could still "earn" a 2-hour fire rating under E-119, because manufacturers can take a "second wall" test, which allows a second sample to be subjected to half of the furnace test, plus the water test. In sharp contrast, the AAC walls emerged unscathed. The inadequacy of the E-119 test method to deterine actual performance was raised in the May report on the World Trade Center collapse. As IMI National Director of Market Development/Technical Services David Sovinski noted, "In a real fire, you don't get to substitute a second wall."
IMI and the National Concrete Masonry Association have long collaborated to educate designers and builders about ways to improve building safety, and are pressing for timely ASTM action on this vital issue. IMI will continue to press the issue before key code officials and other decision makers. ASTM
E-119 "does not provide sufficient information to determine how
long a building component in a structural system can be expected to
perform in an actual fire." -World
Trade Center Building Performance Study (BPS) issued May 1, 2002 by
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Society of
Civil Engineers. Article
courtesy of International Masonry Institute. |
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© 2003 - 2006 Janet Crosby all rights reserved
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