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Application of flame retardants aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide in a material composed of glass fiber with polymeric matrix and its influence on the flammability index

Abstract:

Nowadays, the fire behavior of polymer composite materials is a concern in automotive applications. Due to the flammability of this type of compounds, the present study focused on analyzing the influence of the flame retardants of aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide on the flammability index. A DOE was carried out using a complete factorial design using two categorical variables (type of resin and type of retardant at two levels) and one quantitative variable (volumetric percentage of the retarder for 3 levels). Twelve combinations of composite material were manually conformed maintaining the general volumetric fraction (30% reinforcement, 70% polymer matrix). Percentages of retardants (3.6 and 9%) were part of the volumetric composition of the matrix. The performance and evaluation of the flammability test was carried out under ISO 3795: 1989 and FMVSS 302. In addition, the average temperature inside the test chamber was measured to observe its behavior during combustion. The results showed that the flammability index was significantly reduced with the use of polyester resin with retarder aluminum hydroxide at any percentage and the highest temperature inside the chamber was produced by the combustion of the epoxy resin with 9% retardant of flame.