Fibre Reinforced Facade Encyclopedia: Testing and standards
ASTM E136 is the United States standard test method for assessing the combustibility of building materials in a vertical tube furnace at 750 °C. A small specimen is lowered into the furnace and held there while thermocouples record the temperature at its surface and centre, an observer records flaming, and the specimen is weighed before and after. A material that stays within the limits is noncombustible for the purposes of the International Building Code. It is the American counterpart of AS 1530.1 in Australia and EN ISO 1182 in Europe, and like both of them it is a reaction-to-fire test on a material, not a fire resistance test on an assembly.
The IBC uses one word, noncombustible, and one test to define it. Section 703.5 refers a material to ASTM E136, or to ASTM E2652, and everything the Code says about noncombustible construction, Types I to IV, rests on that furnace result.
At a glance
| Property | Typical value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | ASTM E136 Standard Test Method for Assessing Combustibility of Materials Using a Vertical Tube Furnace at 750 °C | |
| Furnace | Vertical tube furnace stabilised at 750 °C | ASTM E2652 uses the ISO 1182 style apparatus |
| Specimen | About 38 by 38 by 51 mm (1.5 by 1.5 by 2 in) | Four specimens normally tested |
| Duration | 30 minutes, or until temperatures peak and decline | |
| Criterion, mass loss 50% or less | Surface and interior temperature rise not more than 30 °C above the stabilised furnace temperature; no flaming after the first 30 seconds | |
| Criterion, mass loss over 50% | No temperature rise at the thermocouples and no flaming at any time | The stricter of the two paths |
| Referenced by | IBC Section 703.5 (2021); also 703.5.1 and 703.5.2 | Check the edition adopted by the jurisdiction |
| Materials that typically pass | Concrete, glass fibre reinforced concrete, steel, glass, mineral wool, gypsum products | Product specific; coatings can change the result |
| Materials that cannot pass | Fibre reinforced polymer, metal composite panels with a polymer core, timber | Classified by ASTM E84 and NFPA 285 instead |
How the test runs
The furnace is a vertical refractory tube brought to a stable 750 °C and held there. The specimen, a small rectangular block cut from the product, is conditioned, weighed, instrumented with thermocouples at its surface and at its centre, and lowered into the furnace on a holder. A third thermocouple monitors the furnace itself. The specimen stays in for thirty minutes, or until the temperatures have peaked and begun to fall, and the operator watches continuously for flaming.
Afterwards the residue is weighed. The pass criteria then branch on how much mass was lost. If the specimen lost fifty percent or less of its weight, it passes when neither the surface nor the interior thermocouple rose more than 30 °C above the stabilised furnace temperature and there was no flaming after the first thirty seconds. If it lost more than fifty percent, the criteria tighten: no temperature rise at all at either thermocouple, and no flaming at any point. All specimens must pass.
ASTM E2652 is a companion method using the tube furnace apparatus of ISO 1182 and is accepted by the IBC alongside E136. The two are not identical in apparatus or in detail, and a report should be read for which one was used.
What the IBC does with the result
The IBC’s construction types are built on the word noncombustible. Types I and II require noncombustible materials for the structural elements, bearing walls and, subject to the exceptions, the exterior walls. Section 703.5 defines how a material qualifies, and the definition has two limbs. A material can pass ASTM E136 or ASTM E2652 outright, or it can qualify as a composite: a material with a structural base that passes the furnace test, surfaced with a facing not more than 3.2 millimetres (1/8 in) thick having a flame spread index not exceeding 50 under ASTM E84.
That composite limb is how a painted or thinly coated noncombustible substrate remains noncombustible. It is narrow. It does not extend to a thick organic surface, to a sandwich panel with a polymer core, or to a laminate whose core is the combustible part.
How it compares with AS 1530.1 and EN ISO 1182
The three tests share a principle and differ in detail, and none of them is a substitute for another in law. AS 1530.1 uses a similar furnace at about 750 °C and reports the outcome as Combustible or Not Deemed Combustible, which the NCC treats as non-combustible. EN ISO 1182 uses a comparable furnace and feeds into the European classification, with tighter limits for Class A1 than for Class A2 under EN 13501-1.
The differences that matter are the specimen geometry, the number of thermocouples and which ones are judged, the mass loss branch in ASTM E136, and the duration of permitted flaming, which is thirty seconds in E136, five seconds in AS 1530.1 and zero or twenty seconds in EN ISO 1182 depending on the class sought. A product sold across all three markets is tested three times. An Australian AS 1530.1 report does not satisfy a US building official, and an ASTM E136 report does not satisfy an Australian certifier.
What passes, and what cannot
Inorganic mineral products are the candidates: concrete, glass fibre reinforced concrete, fired clay and terracotta, stone, glass, mineral wool, steel and aluminium, and gypsum based products within their own provisions. Whether any particular product passes still depends on the product, because admixtures, polymer modifiers, sealers and coatings all add organic content that the furnace finds.
Polymer composites cannot pass, and no formulation changes that. Fibre reinforced polymer has an organic resin matrix which burns and loses mass, so it fails ASTM E136, and it equally cannot pass AS 1530.1 or EN ISO 1182. This is a property of the material class, not a limitation of a particular product or a gap in testing. FRP is instead classified by ASTM E84 for flame spread and smoke, and its use on exterior walls of Types I to IV is governed by the fibre reinforced polymer provisions in IBC Chapter 26 together with an NFPA 285 test of the assembly.
ShapeShell-RC, the glass fibre reinforced concrete system, is Not Deemed Combustible under AS/NZS 1530.1, tested by Ignis Labs. That is the Australian equivalent result; a US project would need the ASTM E136 test in its own right. ShapeShell-RT, the fibre reinforced polymer system, is combustible and is never described as non-combustible. It holds an AS 5637 Group 1 classification from AWTA Product Testing, an EN 13501-1 class of B-s2,d0 from Intertek Testing Services, and a full-scale BS 8414 and AS 5113 pass from BRE Global.
Standards and references
- ASTM E136 Standard Test Method for Assessing Combustibility of Materials Using a Vertical Tube Furnace at 750 °C
- ASTM E2652 Standard Test Method for Assessing Combustibility of Materials Using a Tube Furnace with a Cone-shaped Airflow Stabilizer, at 750 °C
- International Building Code Section 703.5 (noncombustibility tests) and Chapter 6 (types of construction)
- ASTM E84 (surface burning characteristics), referenced in the composite material limb of 703.5
- NFPA 285 (exterior wall assemblies containing combustible components)
- AS 1530.1 (Australia), EN ISO 1182 (Europe), CAN/ULC S114 (Canada), the comparable furnace tests
Related terms
Questions specifiers ask
What temperature is the ASTM E136 furnace?
750 °C, held stable before the specimen is introduced. The same nominal temperature is used by AS 1530.1 in Australia and EN ISO 1182 in Europe.
What are the ASTM E136 pass criteria?
If the specimen loses 50 percent or less of its mass, the surface and interior thermocouples must not rise more than 30 °C above the stabilised furnace temperature and there must be no flaming after the first 30 seconds. If it loses more than 50 percent, there must be no temperature rise and no flaming at all.
Is ASTM E136 the same as AS 1530.1?
No. They share the principle of a 750 °C furnace test but differ in specimen geometry, thermocouple arrangement, mass loss criteria and permitted flaming. Neither result is accepted in place of the other by the corresponding code.
Can FRP pass ASTM E136?
No. Fibre reinforced polymer has an organic resin matrix that burns and loses mass, so it fails the furnace test, as it does AS 1530.1 and EN ISO 1182. It is classified by ASTM E84 and, for exterior walls, by NFPA 285 on the assembly.
Does passing ASTM E136 mean a material can be used on any exterior wall?
No. It satisfies the noncombustibility definition in IBC Section 703.5, but the exterior wall provisions in Chapters 14 and 26 apply separately, and other combustible layers in the assembly may still trigger NFPA 285.
Working a US project? Ask ShapeShift which tests each system currently holds and which would need to be run for your jurisdiction. Contact the technical team
Reviewed by Richard Halvorsen, General Manager, ShapeShift Technologies. Last updated September 2026.