Fire Resistance Test Report

Nowadays, both residential or commercial building are popularly used withFRP Concrete BlockorFire Resistance AAC Block.Before construction start, if the building would like to use withFRP Concrete BlockorFire Resistance AAC Block., the responsible structural engineer has to submit relevant Fire Resistance Test report to Architect for approval.

Nowadays, if any building needs to install Fire Resistance block wall, most of the construction company would prefer to use Fire Resistance concrete block. The Fire Resistance Rating depends on the block wall thickness. Generally 75mm thick can achieve 1hr Fire Resistance while 100 or 125mm thick can achieve 2hr Fire Resistance. In order to test the Fire Resistance capability of concrete block, there are 2 testing standards, commonly known as BS 476: part 22 and BS EN 1364-1. BS 476 is a relatively old standard but still widely being used. BS EN 1364-1 has been adopted byHong Kong Housing Authorityas the Fire Resistance capability testing standard. Hence, all the ASD projects will need BS EN 1364 as the testing standard.

For one thing, Fire Resistance Concrete Block and Fire Brick are two different types of bricks / blocks which make from different materials. Their testing standard and fire resistance ability are totally different. Fire Brick is not the scope of discussion in this topic.

Go back to testing of Fire Resistance Concrete Block or Fire Resistance AAC Block, BS 476 has different parts. The BS 476: Part 22 which mentioned before is particularly for non-loadbearing block wall. The standard will simulate the block wall under fire temperature for a period of time to determine its heat insulation time and the integrity of block wall. As a result, concrete block to be used in non-loadbearing block wall will be marked its Fire Resistance Rating as FRR(-/60/60) to represent 1 hour Fire Resistance capability or FRR (-/120/120) to represent 2 hour Fire Resistance capability. For loadbearing block wall, the identification of Fire Resistance capability will be FRR(60/60/60) or FRR(120/120/120). We won't go deep here as this is out of our scope. The FRR rating identification is the same bewteen BS EN 1364-1 and BS 476.

Recently, when we were in the submission stage , we met some new request from the architect. They may request for an assessment report on top of the Fire Resistance test report. As a matter of fact, this is not necessary. The aim of an assessment report is to cover those areas which the test report itself does not cover. In other words, if the testing report itself can self explain all the requirements, an assessment report is no longer needed.

Another question which frequently asked by the architect is about the validity of the fire test report. We guess the question was originated from the FR test report forYTONGAAC Block which has a validity date. There will then be having an assessment report telling that everything is normal and then assess again another 5 years later. When the architect who review the submission of block wall has the experience in reviewing YTONG AAC Block, he/she will easily think of the validity date and assessment issue. Regarding this issue, we have contacted the laboratory, which we have used for assessing our concrete block. We have got a verbal reply that there has nothing to be assessed upon the situation of no change on the standard or no change on the material being tested. We agree on this reply and we believe that this reply is reasonable and has its rationale. Regarding the reason about the laboratory, which helped YTONG in testing Fire Resistance, setting a valid date of every 5 years for their testing, we don't have a clue here. Maybe, business consideration is possible reason?

Below diagram is a resources from the internet regarding the meaning of the 3 numbers for identifying FR rating. You can take it as a reference.