Experimental Study of the Behavior of Steel Structures Protected by Different Intumescent Coatings and Exposed to Various Fire Scenarios

Three different experimental setups corresponding to three different fire scenarios were used to investigate how different heating conditions and heating rates affect the behavior of two different thin intumescent coatings (solventbased and water-based paints, respectively). The results confirm that the current procedure for the design of intumescent coatings has shortcomings, as different paints have different performances according to the heating conditions and, in particular, according to the fire’s heating rate. The tested water-based paint had better performance for low heating rates, while the tested solvent-based paint had better performance for high heating rates. However, for really low heating rates the solvent-based paint did not activate or provide proper insulation