Fire Performance of Suspended Acoustic Ceiling Tile Systems

Suspended acoustic ceiling tile systems are used in new and existing residential and commercial buildingsbecause of their reduced installation time, increased ceiling load, and ability to dampen ambient noise.Nowadays an increasing number of companies and people are asking for fire safety and installation fire codesand standards on these ceiling systems. However, there appears to be a lack of credible test data regarding thefire performance of non-rated suspended acoustic ceiling tile systems.RJ Bartlett Engineering Ltd. is a leading Canadian engineering firm that has developed an internationalreputation specializing in fire protection engineering, forensic engineering, code consulting, and alternativecompliance analyses. Currently they are interested in establishing a temperature-based failure criterion for thesesuspended ceiling systems for performance-based design and fire modelling. Furthermore, they want toinvestigate any thermal resistance to heat transfer into the ceiling space above (during the time that they wouldbe expected to remain in place). It is expected that the various options available today with respect to ceilingtile density, composition, size, suspended grid construction and anchoring, would have an impact on theseresults.This research proposal aims to briefly review the literature on temperature-based failure rates and evaluatethe most promising models that may be used to experimentally study the heat transfer to the ceiling surfacesand the thermal conditions in the space above the ceiling. An apparatus to investigate the behavior of theceiling tiles when exposed to either a radiant heat source or a buoyant diffusion flame will be designed andbuilt. The temperature and heat transfer data from these experiments will be used to validate appropriatemodels and enhance or modify them if found inadequate and/or used to develop new models where existingones are found to be inadequate. These models will enable RJ Bartlett Engineering Ltd. to have a competitiveedge over other fire consultants.