An investigation of flammability of intumescent flame retardant polyethylene containing starch by using cone calorimeter

The behaviour of flammability of linear low density polyethylene(LLDPE) tre ated with the intumescent flame retardant containing starch has been invest igated by using cone calorimeter at incident heat flux of 50 kW . m(-2) in this paper. Based upon the parameters, such as peak heat release rate (pk-H RR), total heat release (THR), effective heat of combustion (EHC), peak smo ke production rate(pk-SPR), total smoke production(TSP) and mass loss rate (MLR), etc. taken from the cone calorimeter, some results were obtained as follows: Firstly, starch-containing intumescent flame retardant (S-IFR) obv iously lowered pk-HRR, THR and EHC, i. e., 485 kW . m(-2), 905 kJ, 33. 2 MJ . kg(-1) respectively for LLDPE/S-IFR, 1 951 kW . m(-2), 1 019 kJ, 44. 7 M J . kg(-1) for LLDPE. pk-HRR increased slightly with increasing the percent age of starch in char forming agents; secondly, S-IFR made pk-SPR of LLDPE become lower, however, it significantly enhanced TSP at the end of combusti on; finally, S-IFR promoted the thermal degradation of LLDPE earlier, and m ade the rate of thermal degradation lower.