• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.75-85
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• 2018

The Grenpell tower fire in England in June of 2016 is a representative example of damage caused by a vertical fire spreading through external insulation. Organic insulation materials, which are widely used in external insulation, have the disadvantage that they have good insulation performance but are vulnerable to fire. Aluminum composite panels are used as exterior wall finishing materials, and plastics used in aluminum are regarded as the cause of vertical fire spread. Due to the steel frame used to secure the aluminum composite panel to the outer wall, a cavity is formed between the outer wall and outer wall finish. When a fire occurs on the outer wall, the flammable outer wall as well as the flame generated from the heat-insulating material spreads vertically through the cavity, resulting in damage to people and property. In Korea, material unit performance tests are carried out by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport notice 2015 - 744. However, in the UK, the BS 8414 test is used to measure the vertical fire spreading time on the outer wall in real scale fire tests. In this study, the risk of external wall fire was evaluated in an actual fire by conducting a real scale wall fire test (BS 8414), which was carried out in Europe, using aluminum composite panels of semi-noncombustible materials suitable for current domestic standards. The purpose of this study was to confirm the limitations of material unit evaluation of finishing materials and to confirm the necessity of introducing a system to prevent the spread of outer wall fire through an actual scale fire test.