1. Introduction
Safety concerns during a fire are one of the highest challenges for Civils Engineers today [
1]. Chapter VI of Announcements of the Minister of Infrastructure and Development since 16 July 2015, as amended [
2], deals with fire-building protection. By law, every building must be designed and built in a way restrictive fire spreading and giving a possibility to rescue operations. Civil objects are divided into five fire classes depending on the purpose of the object, building rise and a number of stories. Classes are described as fire resistance requirements to be met by internal and external parts of a building. Internal walls such as partition walls can be made from bricks, drywall [
3] or glass partition, which is gaining popularity [
4]. Fire Resistance requirements for these elements are from EI 15 to EI 60 class. External facades should meet requirements from EI 30 to EI 120 (o
i). Fire-temperature is particularly unfavorable for building joineries like windows, doors, partition and facades made of materials with low melting point and high thermal conductivity, for instance, aluminum. Temperature increases cause strength properties to decrease [
5,
6]. To meet the demanding Fire Resistance class requirements, additional infill and/or cover insulation and cooling materials are needed [
7,
8]. These solutions are presented in the figures below.
As presented in
Figure 1, there are few possibilities to protect metal profiles against dangerous fire-temperature. In Facades, doors, windows, partitions, etc., where the esthetical point of view is needed supporting cooling-insulation materials are filling profile (
Figure 1a,b). Sometimes these materials are inside another profile (
Figure 1a), which is inserted as a reinforcement—cooling profile into the standard façade profile. Typical contour protection is based on board fixed to external profile layers. This is the most common solution in the fire protection of steel structures. Protection against fire is strictly connecting with the thermal conductivity of protected material [
9]. Materials with good thermal conductivity lose their load-bearing properties during exposure to high-temperature quickly. That is the reason why additional isolation material from the external side of the profile is needed [
8]. If project demands do not allow additional external covers, for instance, in façade profiles, then supporting material must have a cooling function and be installed inside the profile in chambers. If the profile has one chamber, then the insulation function in chamber space is useless. If the profile has more than one (
Figure 1b), then a combination of insulation and cooling materials may meet the standard requirement. The increasing temperature during fire-temperature causes decreases in strength properties metal profiles. That is the reason why more useful supporting materials should base on reaction connected with heat energy consumption. There are two main mechanisms of heat energy consumption. The first is based on specific heat capacity, in which the delivered amount of energy, in the form of heat to one unit of the mass of the substance, causes an increase of one unit of temperature. The second is based on an endothermic reaction, in which the delivered temperature will increase the enthalpy of the endothermic reaction and cools down the system [
10].
In the paper [
11], it is pointed out that the main goal of using heat absorption coating is decreasing heat flux transported to supporting structure. The most popular fire protection infill materials are gypsum board, calcium silicate and silicate–cement materials [
12]. Exposition to the high-temperature is leading to physicochemical changes for most of the cement and gypsum-based materials [
13,
14,
15]. Changes cause, for instance, a decrease in strength properties. In the paper [
16], thermodynamic changes occur in the matrix and in aggregates [
17], for example, a quartz phase transition to cristobalite following the increase of volume [
18], even 17% [
19] or carbonate decomposition with CO
2 emission [
20] in limestone. Cement materials are described as engineer construction material [
14] also used in industry as special thermal resistance material [
21,
22]. Heat treatment cements material according to the heat-resistance standard, has a different influence on the material than exposure on fire-temperature in according to the standard fire curve [
23]. In the hardened Portland matrix, there are more than 30 phases, of which 7th are most common [
24]. There is also the possibility to create a new phase as a consequence of an interaction between aggregate, cement phases and water [
25]. In the reaction of Portland cement with water, there are hydrate aluminous, calcium–silicate and ferrous phases. If gypsum is added as the bonding agent, then sulfate phases will hydrate. The main phases are hydrated calcium–silicate (CSH) and calcium hydroxide (CH), brownmillerite (C2AF) and ettringite (C4AH13) are smaller share phases [
26].
High-temperature exposure causes moisture and capillary capture water retention, dehydration from hydrates [
16] and dehydroxylation of hydro oxygens like portlandite. Every phase has a characteristic phase decomposition temperature range, according to
Table 1.
Portland cement usage includes high-temperature composites for work in <400 °C [
21] after heat treatment. Fast temperature increase can cause a spalling effect [
16,
28]. Another type of binder is calcium sulfoaluminate cement. This material has a different composition of clinker than Portland cement. Hydration reaction is different than for Portland cement. Consequently, hydration is gaining an expansive hydraulic binder [
29], where the main phase is ettringite. Additional phases are monosulfite, stratlingite and alumina trihydrate [
30]. Phase decompositions underexposure on the high-temperature are shown in
Table 2 [
31].
CSA types of cement show a high permeability and nowadays they are dedicated for work at temperatures lower than 150 °C [
32]. Materials based on CSA cement are characterizing by higher compressive strength than traditional types of Portland cement (ex. 42,5R/52,5R) [
29]. OPC-based material modified by CSA influences hardening time reduction, early strength and standard strength [
33]. OPC shrinkage behavior during drying is one of the biggest issues conducting to cracking and curling. This negative behavior can be compensated by using expansive or shrinkage-compensating concrete bases, for instance, by CSA cement addition, where properties are strongly connected with types of curing [
34]. On the other hand, reverse modification has a positive influence on steel passivation [
35] by setting phase able to carbonation.
The main ingredient of gypsum is calcium sulfonate dehydrate—gypsum stone. This compound is classified according to water content into three types: dihydrate, hemihydrate (α i β) and anhydrate [
36]. Gypsum meets fire resistance standard requirements because it is classified as non-flammable [
37]. The use of gypsum in fire protection systems complies with the standard PN-EN 13501-1. It is A2 class material classified as noncombustible and no flashover in RCT referential test [
38]. In fire zones, it is used as byproducts of a matrix in fire resistance gypsum board reinforced by cut glass fiber. High-temperature exposure dehydrates gypsum, and next heat energy is consumed on water evaporation in the following reaction [
39]:
Water released from crystal lattice has an extinguishing function, which can decrease the external field of temperature [
40]. Based on thermodynamic calculations, it is possible to get further decomposition stage of gypsum in temperature greater than 800 °C and appropriate pressure in accordance with the following reaction [
41]:
Data concerning the decomposition of phases in ceramic material in cement bases are presented in Collier N. C. paper [
42]. These were selected for the purposes of this study according to Portland cement, gypsum and CSA cement and shown in the
Table 3.
The main solution of cooling properties is to use material composite and internal endothermic reaction to increase the enthalpy and for creating products able to periodically decrease the temperature or keep them on the same level following La Chatelier and Braun principle from 1887. Insulation-cooling properties of ceramic materials on cement-based was not investigated as thoroughly as insulation-construction properties [
43] or fire resistance insulate covers [
44,
45,
46]. Critical condition influence like fire on the behavior of composite with CSA contents has not found a place in literature. There is no information about this cement-based material behavior above 150 °C and behavior depending on fire exposure time. There is also a lack of information about OPC-CSA blends exposure to elevated temperature. Available research describes the usage of CSA cement in standard environment conditions on special projects, for example, airport runaway, bridge decks, prestressed tanks, etc. [
47]. Furthermore, CSA cement has a binder with a lower carbon footprint than OPC cement [
48]. However, in [
49] authors pointed important conclusion connected with the general safety of construction material, that life–safety will always take precedence over sustainability issues.