In Fig. 5, the predictions of the conversion fraction for the water
evaporation reaction, the gypsum board dehydration reaction and
the gypsum board crystal mesh reorganization reaction, using
the kinetic parameters obtained from the model-fitting method
(Tables 2 and 3) are compared with the experimental data for different
heating rates. As it is shown, the agreement between the
numerical results and the experiments is quite good, which states
that the kinetic parameters obtained from the multi-fitting method
are capable of describing the aforementioned reactions. It can be
seen that there are some discrepancies at low (˛ < 0.1) and high
(˛ > 0.9) conversion fractions. These discrepancies could be associated
to correctness of the selected temperature range used in
the DSC measurements in order to obtain the conversion fraction
curves and to the accuracy of the optimization method used in the
model-fitting method. Nevertheless, it could be assumed that the
kinetic parameters obtained from the model-fitting method and
tabulated in Tables 2 and 3 are reliable and can be used for the
definition of gypsum board thermal performance in practical application,
where the permeability of the gypsum board is high and the
water vapor partial pressure is negligible.