3 ms·

I presume it will melt, like any other expanded polystyrene, the very second it reaches 100° Celsius.

jacquesm 5y ago
No, the concrete it appears to be embedded in should stop that from happening, it is essentially a hollow panel at this stage with a dense concrete surface layer. That's also why then can have those tensional elements in it, if you tried that with 100% styrofoam it wouldn't do anything other than rip the elements apart.
- daneel_w 5y ago
  I doubt it. Neither plaster nor cement are ideal thermal insulators, and 100° Celsius is not much in the context of a raging fire. I don't think a fire will need much time to deform the EPS panels in these buildings.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    I've worked a bit with woodpanels insulated with styrofoam embedded within concrete. They weren't nearly as fireproof as brick or full reinforced concrete but compared reasonably well with just woodframe or steel (which was the worst of the lot). As you already observed, it's all about the insulation, and even though the foam itself may melt the concrete will survive the initial roasting and that just leaves you with a bunch of gaps in the concrete which makes it insulate much better than solid concrete would. You'd have to set up a proper test to determine the amount of insulation you'd have to add (I'd absolutely hate to have to drywall a surface like this). One way to do it would be to stucco the inside. But depending on the thickness of the walls you might not need much to achieve the amount of structural integrity required by the fire code, these are not going to be multi level buildings anyway. Edit: I did some more digging and found this image on their website: http://www.i-domehouse.com/product_type/img/01-04_2.jpg http://www.i-domehouse.com/product_type/img/01-04_2.jpg So it appears that the foam core is just foam, nothing else, so there is no interior structure other than the styrofoam. This won't pass building code or fire code for structural integrity anywhere that I've ever built something. I can see them using these for emergency shelters but not for permanent occupation without more internal structure. They do show a resort built with these, I wonder where it is and what kind of building code they operate under. The cement backing is just a thin layer applied to the outside of the panels, so indeed, when they get too hot the interior will melt and then you're just looking at two thin bits of cement without any kind of reinforcement. It would likely collapse immediately if they did not take any precautions. Fire safety is not something I could find any information on in their pages, they do mention excellent earthquake resistance, which I totally believe.

No, the concrete it appears to be embedded in should stop that from happening, it is essentially a hollow panel at this stage with a dense concrete surface layer. That's also why then can have those tensional elements in it, if you tried that with 100% styrofoam it wouldn't do anything other than rip the elements apart.

daneel_w 5y ago
I doubt it. Neither plaster nor cement are ideal thermal insulators, and 100° Celsius is not much in the context of a raging fire. I don't think a fire will need much time to deform the EPS panels in these buildings.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  I've worked a bit with woodpanels insulated with styrofoam embedded within concrete. They weren't nearly as fireproof as brick or full reinforced concrete but compared reasonably well with just woodframe or steel (which was the worst of the lot). As you already observed, it's all about the insulation, and even though the foam itself may melt the concrete will survive the initial roasting and that just leaves you with a bunch of gaps in the concrete which makes it insulate much better than solid concrete would. You'd have to set up a proper test to determine the amount of insulation you'd have to add (I'd absolutely hate to have to drywall a surface like this). One way to do it would be to stucco the inside. But depending on the thickness of the walls you might not need much to achieve the amount of structural integrity required by the fire code, these are not going to be multi level buildings anyway. Edit: I did some more digging and found this image on their website: http://www.i-domehouse.com/product_type/img/01-04_2.jpg http://www.i-domehouse.com/product_type/img/01-04_2.jpg So it appears that the foam core is just foam, nothing else, so there is no interior structure other than the styrofoam. This won't pass building code or fire code for structural integrity anywhere that I've ever built something. I can see them using these for emergency shelters but not for permanent occupation without more internal structure. They do show a resort built with these, I wonder where it is and what kind of building code they operate under. The cement backing is just a thin layer applied to the outside of the panels, so indeed, when they get too hot the interior will melt and then you're just looking at two thin bits of cement without any kind of reinforcement. It would likely collapse immediately if they did not take any precautions. Fire safety is not something I could find any information on in their pages, they do mention excellent earthquake resistance, which I totally believe.