Influence of fire barriers on fire performance of facades with combustible insulation

In today's modern society sustainability has become a key driver for innovation. Sustainability in buildings is, or at least it should be, strongly interconnected with energy efficiency and fire safety. Unfortunately, cases of fires in buildings all over the world are a wakeup call to start thinking of fire safety as an inevitable part of energy efficiency in buildings. Thermally enhanced building envelopes, due to materials used, can represent significantly increased fire load on façades. To determine their fire performance, it is necessary to move on from material level to the whole building level, i.e. full scale tests. This paper presents findings from comprehensive research on influence of fire barrier on fire performance of External Thermal Insulation Composite System – ETICS with combustible thermal insulation. To confirm findings, tests on identical ETICS systems were conducted in March 2014 and May 2014.