CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 43, 2015 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Chief Editors: Sauro Pierucci, Jiří J. Klemeš Copyright © 2015, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., I SBN 978-88-95608-34-1; I SSN 2283-9216 Research on Fire Safety Parameters on Foam Gypsum Products Kristaps Pulkis a , Uldis Iljins b , Juris Skujans a , Uldis Gross* ,b a LatviaUniversity of Agriculture, Dep. of Rural Engineering, 19 Akademijas Street, Jelgava, LV-3001, Latvia b Latvia University of Agriculture, Dep. of Information Technologies 2 Liela Street, Jelgava, LV-3001, Latvia uldis.gross@llu.lv The study examines determination of fire influencing parameters in foam gypsum products, such as fire resistance, fire reaction class, performance of foam gypsum boards in high temperatures. Taking into consideration the high fire resistance of gypsum, it may have significant role in the construction of fireproof structures, not only as fireproof boards, but also as acoustic boards. Foam gypsum is a perspective construction material not only of high fire resistance, but also of good acoustic and heat insulating properties. Foam gypsum content includes gypsum, i.e. calcium sulphate dihydrate, CaSO4 2H2O, characterized with the chemical reaction of gypsum at high temperature and energy absorption. As a result of physical chemical processes the foam producer forms a porous structure of the material. Such material provides A1 fire reaction class. Based on these properties and varying the foam gypsum content and production technology, a material of wide application can be acquired, because it provides meeting of such basic requirements of construction materials as fire safety, hygiene, protection against noises, heat insulation and sustainable use of nature resources. Introduction One of the most important basic requirements of structures is fire safety, which provides retention of the carrying capacity of structures provides safe exit for users from structures and limits fire expansion. Most often fire safety requirements in construction of buildings are met with the help of passive fire safety solutions. The good fire protection qualities of gypsum products as a material have been known and observed already long before. These qualities are known to provide the necessary requirements of the bearing structures for the increase of fire protection (Marani, 1916), related to the thermo chemical reaction of gypsum (Dean, 1968). Nowadays for the implementation of fire safety requirements metal and wood frame structures with gypsum board panelling are used. Pure gypsum is calcium sulphate dihydrate CaSO4·2H2O, which is a crystalline mineral containing approximately 21 % of crystalline bound water and approximately 79 % of calcium sulphate. When heating gypsum to 100 – 120 °C, it partially dehydrates, losing 75 % of the chemically bound water (Mehaffey et al., 1994), which results in the start of gypsum collapse (Benichou and Sultan, 2005) Continuing heating to 200 – 250 °C second reaction of dehydration takes place, as a result of which gypsum loses the remaining 25 % of chemically bound water resulting in decreased heat conductivity of gypsum boards (Wakili and Hugi, 2009). During these reactions layer of water steam forms on the surface of gypsum boards, slowing down the heating of the material. Former studies have proved the good properties of gypsum products in high temperatures (Manzello et al., 2007). Up to now, studies of foam gypsum products have been implemented, related to the drying process of foam gypsum (Skujans et al., 2010), absorption of noise (Bencis et al., 2012), reinforcing possibilities (Gross et al., 2013), but there are no studies about the effects of high temperatures on foam gypsum products. The widely used gypsum boards have the volumetric weight of 600 - 900 kg/m 3 , but foam gypsum can be acquired with the volumetric mass of 250 – 350 kg/m 3 . This provides the possibility to incorporate fire resistance of gypsum and beneficial properties of porous materials in foam gypsum.. DOI: 10.3303/CET1543295 Please cite this article as: Pulkis K., Iljins U., Skujans J., Gross U., 2015, Research on fire safety parameters on foam gypsum products, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 43, 1765-1770 DOI: 10.3303/CET1543295 1765