Fire Safety of Composites

Dear Colleagues,

Fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials while compete with metals for their mechanical properties, are susceptible to combustion and fire damage, resuting in loss of structutal integrity. Fire safety of these materials is a major issue these days because, depending on applications, they must pass some type of regulatory fire test. The two polymeric components of the composite, resin (organic) and fibre (inorganic and/or organic) in a fire behave differently depending upon their respective thermal stabilities. Conventionally in rigid composite structures, inorganic fibres like glass, carbon or high performance fibres such as aramids are used as reinforcing element, hence, no attempt is made to fire retard them further. Therefore the emphasis lies on the resin, either using as a fire retardant component in the polymer backbone or adding fire retardant chemicals in the resin, which depending upon the loading level, can result in reduction in the mechanical properties of the composites. Alternative method of fire protection is through the application of a thermal insulator or a fire-retardant coating. In case of natural fibre-reinforced composites, fibres are also flammable, hence fire retardant solutions are required. This special issue of Journal of Composite Science  aims to gather the recent advances in all of these areas using experimental and/or mathematically modelled approaches. 

Prof. Dr. Baljinder Kandola
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Composites Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• resins
• fibres
• fire retardants
• composite
• nanocomposite
• surface coatings
• thermal insulation
• fire resistance
• post-fire mechanical properties
• heat transfer
• smoke release
• mathematical modelling and computational simulations