University North

PROLONG

https://www.croris.hr/projekti/projekt/15606?lang=en

Sveučilište Sjever

49620 EUR

21.10.2025 – 30.09.2029

The project focuses on developing geopolymer-based boards designed to protect steel structural elements from fire by prolonging the transfer of heat generated during a fire through the board to the steel element, thereby ensuring the building’s fire resistance (and its stability) for a longer period of time. The geopolymer boards will be entirely produced from crushed brick elements as a locally available waste material: 1) originating from the collapse of masonry buildings due to earthquakes, or 2) produced in brick factories by crushing brick units that do not meet the prescribed quality requirements for market use. The project promotes the management of construction waste while simultaneously giving it added value—its use as a material for manufacturing boards that protect steel structures from fire, ultimately helping preserve human life. The research activities include identifying the optimal geopolymer mix for manufacturing the PROLONG boards, producing the boards under laboratory conditions, and testing their effectiveness when steel structural elements are exposed to fire under laboratory conditions with both simulated fire loading (heating steel elements by induction) and real fire loading (exposing steel elements to an actual fire). By monitoring the temperature transmitted through the PROLONG boards and other commercially available boards to the steel member, the effectiveness of these boards will be evaluated in comparison with other commercially available products intended for the same purpose.

prof. dr. sc. Ivanka Netinger Grubeša

doc. dr. sc. Anđelko Crnoja

Dalibor Kramarić

-

-