Effects of the structural strength of fire protection insulation systems in offshore installations

Mineral wool is an insulation material commonly used in passive fire protection (PFP) systems on offshore installations. Insulation materials have only been considered functional materials for thermal analysis in the conventional offshore PFP system design method. Hence, the structural performance of insulation has yet to be considered in the design of PFP systems. However, the structural elements of offshore PFP systems are often designed with excessive dimensions to satisfy structural requirements under external loads such as wind, fire and explosive pressure. To verify the structural contribution of insulation material, it was considered a structural material in this study. A series of material tensile tests was undertaken with two types of mineral wool at room temperature and at elevated temperatures for fire conditions. The mechanical properties were then verified with modified methods, and a database was constructed for application in a series of nonlinear structural and thermal finite-element analyses of an offshore bulkhead-type PFP system. Numerical analyses were performed with a conventional model without insulation and with a new suggested model with insulation. These analyses showed the structural contribution of the insulation in the structural behaviour of the PFP panel. The results suggest the need to consider the structural strength of the insulation material in PFP systems during the structural design step for offshore installations.