Technical Note

Subject: Fire Resistance of Composite Grating

February 2013

This technical note is intended to supplement information provided to duty holders by the Health &
Safety Executive in their safety bulletin number HID 2-2012, dated 2nd October 2012. The HSE
bulletin is accessible at http://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/deck-gratings.htm.

Essentially the HSE bulletin draws duty holders attention to the potential failure or loss of integrity
of Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) gratings after exposure to relatively short duration hydrocarbon
pool fires. The HSE recommended duty holder action states Duty Holders must identify whether
composites are used in areas where they may be exposed to hydrocarbon fires. If so, Duty Holders
must establish means of ensuring, in consultation with manufacturers or suppliers, that sufficient
integrity will remain for their safe use.

This technical note seeks to further inform and guide appropriate duty holder response actions to
achieve continuing compliance with the Offshore Installations (Prevention of Fire and Explosion, and
Emergency Response) Regulations 1995. The note is intended as interim guidance pending possible
future standards development.

Background

FRP gratings are in widespread use on offshore installations on account of their weight saving and
improved corrosion resistance over conventional steel grating. FRP gratings fall into two main
categories based on the resin used in manufacture, these being polyester and phenolic. FRP gratings
are currently certified to United States Coast Guard (USCG) specifications that use load tests and
exposure to cellulosic rather than hydrocarbon fires. Testing and research by HSE [1] has determined
that commonly used FRP grating products may lose their load-bearing capabilities or fail after
exposure to short duration hydrocarbon pool fires. Additional independent testing [2] has been
carried out with a range of fire types and durations and using realistic foot traffic loads. This has
identified that the current testing regime is not sufficiently robust for FRP gratings to determine
their suitability for use on oil and gas installations.

Nature and Results of Fire Testing of FRP Grating

In the independent tests, the test regime was designed around recognised heat flux levels normally
adopted within Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) and Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA). These are
shown in Table 1. Testing on FRP grating specimens was carried out using test apparatus based on BS
EN ISO 14692-2: 2002 [3]. After fire exposure durations of 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 minutes, test specimens
Technical Note
Subject: Fire Resistance of Composite Grating
February 2013

were subjected to three point bend testing post-fire to determine their residual strength and
suitability to withstand representative loads.

Table 1: Test regime heat flux levels

Heat Flux Flame Temperature Significance

12.5 kW/m ~400C Highest heat flux for escape actions lasting a few
seconds (such as jumping into the sea). Injuries may
well occur.
37.5 kW/m ~600C Level above which immediate fatalities occur and steel
structures typically require passive fire protection.
100 kW/m ~900C Lower end of hydrocarbon fire heat fluxes.
250 to 350 kW/m ~1200 to 1400C Typical high pressure jet fires

To establish representative loads, FRP grating panels were instrumented with strain gauges and
subjected to running and walking loads of personnel of both average and 95 percentile weights for
offshore workers (including personal protective and fire fighting equipment). These loads are
considerably higher than the loads used in the USCG test requirements (in the order of 50 times
higher), as the nature of these loads was localised impact rather than distributed loads.

Results of these tests, which were carried out on pristine samples of both phenolic and polyester
gratings, showed a rapid drop in strength after short duration exposure to fire. It can be seen in
Figure 1, for phenolic gratings, the strength dropped below the required level within 2 or 3 minutes
under representative hydrocarbon fire loads (100 kW/m2) and survived only marginally longer at
37.5 kW/m2. The polyester gratings were more prone to deterioration, with rapid strength loss
exhibited at only 37.5 kW/m2 (see Figure 2) and complete destruction at higher heat fluxes or longer
durations. In addition, the polyester gratings produced higher levels of smoke and fumes during
testing.
Technical Note
Subject: Fire Resistance of Composite Grating
February 2013

Figure 1: Example phenolic grating test results & trend lines after fire exposure.

Figure 2: Example polyester grating test results & trend lines after fire exposure.
Technical Note
Subject: Fire Resistance of Composite Grating
February 2013

The damage to the polyester grating was more visibly obvious than the phenolic grating, which
although compromised in strength, was little changed in appearance post-fire, perhaps leading
people to use them with subsequent failure and potential injury.

In conclusion, although the FRP gratings appear acceptable up to 12.5 kW/m2, beyond this the
strength degrades rapidly and neither polyester nor phenolic FRP gratings demonstrated that they
were suitable for use at higher heat fluxes even at short exposure durations.

Oil & Gas UK Guidance to Duty Holders

OGUK considers that the following scenarios may arise where gratings require post-fire strength:

Personnel who have taken temporary shelter during the initial stages of a fire event and who
are then trying to make their way to the temporary refuge or means of evacuation or
escape;
Emergency response teams going out to investigate or deal with a fire event, or to recover
casualties; and
Incident investigation, damage assessment and remediation teams after the event.

In these scenarios the current FRP technology has been shown not to be suitable, whereas steel
grating is known to retain sufficient strength post-fire. In the absence of relevant UK guidance,
NORSOK S-001 [4] may be considered to represent good practice and section 21.5 states Steel
should be the preferable material used in escape routes that may be exposed to hydrocarbon fires
including handrails and stairs. Other materials may only be used if documented acceptable with
respect to survivability also when considering use of the emergency response teams. Note that, to
date, no testing has been undertaken on handrails within this programme. Oil & Gas UK considers
that meeting the current USCG test requirements [5] is not an acceptable demonstration of
survivability for oil and gas applications.

In addition to normal grating design requirements, Oil & Gas UK would expect duty holders to be
able to demonstrate post-fire structural integrity for all escape routes. Other grated areas should be
assessed as to their potential fire exposure and suitability thereafter for use in the above three
scenarios.

This technical note is intended to apply both to new designs and existing installations.
 Technical Note
Subject: Fire Resistance of Composite Grating
February 2013

References:

1. HSE Preliminary fire testing of composite offshore pedestrian gratings Research Report RR950
2. Post-fire Structural Integrity of Composite Gratings for Offshore Platforms; R J Holliday, MMI Engineering;
A G Gibson, Newcastle University, et al; 8th Asian-Australasian Conference on Composite Materials, 2012 -
Client Confidential, summary available on request.
3. BS EN ISO 14692-2: 2002 Petroleum and natural gas industries. Glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) piping Part 2:
Qualification and manufacture.
th
4. NORSOK S-001 Technical Safety 4 Edition 2008
5. United States Coast Guard Policy File Memorandum (June 2008)

In preparing and publishing this technical note, Oil & Gas UK gratefully acknowledges the
contribution of the following individuals:
David Piper Maersk Oil
Richard Holliday MMI Engineering
Sean OSullivan Marathon International Oil (G.B)