At 9:05 on January 7, 2025, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred in Dingri County, Shigatse City, Tibet, with a focal depth of 10 kilometers, which has caused 126 deaths, 188 injuries, and a large number of houses collapsed.
In this earthquake, we saw the fragility of house structures and the importance of earthquake-resistant materials. As a high-performance building material, the role of flame retardant boards in earthquake relief cannot be ignored. After an earthquake, electrical lines and gas pipelines inside buildings may be damaged, causing fires. The fireproof performance of flame retardant boards can effectively prevent the spread of fire and buy precious time for rescue work.
The role of flame-retardant density boards in earthquakes is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Structural stability
- Enhancing the overall stability of the building: The internal structure of the flame-retardant density board is uniform, the density is moderate, the dimensional stability is good, the deformation is small, and its static bending strength, internal bonding strength, elastic modulus and other physical and mechanical properties are better than particleboard. When an earthquake occurs, the building will be subjected to strong vibrations. The structural components such as walls and partitions made of flame-retardant density boards can remain relatively stable, reducing the damage to the building structure caused by excessive deformation, thereby enhancing the overall stability of the building and reducing the risk of building collapse.
- Improving the reliability of the connection parts: The board surface and board edge of the flame-retardant density board have strong screw holding force. In an earthquake, it can ensure that the connection parts with other building components or structures are more firm and reliable. For example, the fixed connection between furniture and walls, the connection between walls and floor slabs, etc. made of flame-retardant density boards are not easy to loosen and fall off during earthquake vibrations, avoiding secondary disasters caused by connection failure, such as furniture falling and injuring people, and separation of walls and floor slabs.
Safety protection
- Prevent secondary disasters caused by fire: After an earthquake, buildings may experience gas leaks, short circuits, etc., which may cause fires. Flame-retardant density boards have good flame retardant properties. When encountering a fire, they can suppress open flames and reduce heat, effectively delay the spread of fire, buy precious time for personnel evacuation and fire fighting, and reduce the secondary damage of fire to buildings and personnel.
- Protect the safety of indoor personnel: The surface of the flame-retardant density board is flat and smooth, which is convenient for secondary processing. It can be pasted with rotary cut veneer, sliced veneer, paint paper, impregnated paper, and can also be directly painted and printed for decoration. In an earthquake, even if there is a certain degree of damage inside the building, the decorative surface layer made of flame-retardant density board is not easy to produce sharp fragments, which reduces the damage to indoor personnel such as cuts and scratches, and plays a certain role in safety protection.
Emergency rescue
- Easy to build temporary shelters: The flame-retardant density board has a large format, and the board thickness can vary in the range of 2.0 to 35 mm. Production can be organized according to different uses. During the emergency rescue phase after an earthquake, flame-retardant density boards can be used to quickly build temporary shelters to provide temporary living and resting places for the affected people. Its good processing properties, such as sawing, drilling, mortising, milling, sanding, etc., are similar to wood, and some are even better than wood. It can be easily cut and assembled according to on-site needs to improve construction efficiency.
- As a supporting material for rescue channels: In the ruins after an earthquake, rescuers need to open rescue channels to enter the building for search and rescue. Flame-retardant density boards can be used as supporting materials to build temporary rescue channels or support unstable structures to prevent further collapse of the ruins, ensure the safety of rescuers, and improve rescue efficiency.
