• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.371-384
• /
• 2023

Precast roofing systems employing prestressed elements often serve as smart structural solutions for the construction of industrial buildings. The precast concrete elements usually employed are highly engineered, and often consist in thin-walled members, characterised by a complex behaviour in fire. The present study was carried out after a fire event damaged a precast industrial building made with prestressed beam and roof elements, and non-prestressed curved barrel vault elements interposed in between the spaced roof elements. As a consequence of the exposure to the fire, the main elements were found standing, although some locally damaged and distorted, and the local collapse of few curved barrel vault elements was observed in one edge row only. In order to understand and interpret the observed structural performance of the roof system under fire, a full fire safety engineering process was carried out according to the following steps: (a) realistic temperature-time curves acting on the structural elements were simulated through computational fluid dynamics, (b) temperature distribution within the concrete elements was obtained with non-linear thermal analysis in variable regime, (c) strength and deformation of the concrete elements were checked with non-linear thermal-mechanical analysis. The analysis of the results allowed to identify the causes of the local collapses occurred, attributable to the distortion caused by temperature to the elements causing loss of support in early fire stage rather than to the material strength reduction due to the progressive exposure of the elements to fire. Finally, practical hints are provided to avoid such a phenomenon to occur when designing similar structures.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
• /
• v.9 no.4 s.33
• /
• pp.649-658
• /
• 1997

When steel tube as a column is filled with concrete, it is common that the load-bearing capacities of CFST(Concrete Filled Steel Tube) column are increased substantially, And the CFST column can obtain a capacity of fire resistance without any additional detail on the surface of the steel tube for fire protection. In order to clarify the behavior of CFST column during fire occurrence, a theoretical study is performed, that is, a thermal analysis is used to find temperature gradient dependent on the time on the steel tube and the infilled concrete. N-M (axial force-moment) interaction curves are summarized under the consideration for time dependent variation. The material properties of concrete and steel in accordance with a temperature variation are referred to the existing general data. Thermal transient analyses are performed by finite element method through ANSYS and then these results are verified by comparing with the existing test results. On the basis of analytical results, load-carrying capacities (N-M interaction curves) are calculated by numerical analysis method.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.58-63
• /
• 2011

This study is intended to present a computational thermal model for the combustibles in a residential building. As the Performance Based Design is more popular, fire-intensity and fire-load have turned out to be very important factors for building design and can be predicted through some computational work. To predict and estimate the thermal properties of the residential combustible fire, we made some numerical models of combustibles in a residential building. In a bid to validate the estimate values, computational analysis results from numerical models were compared with real fire tests. For computational analysis, the Fire Dynamics Simulator was used with Large Eddy Simulation model for turbulence. Consequently, each heat release rate and total heat release curves were successfully estimated.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.323-334
• /
• 2021

Concrete structures may rarely collapse in fire incidents but fire induced damage to structural members is inevitable as a result of material degradation and thermal expansion. This requires certain repairing measures to be applied to restore the performance of post-fire members. A brief review on investigation of post-fire damage of concrete material and concrete structural members is presented in this paper, followed by a review of post-fire repair research regarding various types of repairing techniques (FRP, steel plate, and concrete section enlargement) and different type of structural members including columns, beams, and slabs. Particularly, the fire scenarios adopted in these studies leading to damage are categorized as three levels according to the duration of gas-phase temperature above 600℃ (t₆₀₀). The repair effectiveness in terms of recovered performance of concrete structural members compared to the initial undamaged performance has been summarized and compared regarding the repairing techniques and fire intensity levels. The complied results have shown that recovering the ultimate strength is achievable but the stiffness recovery is difficult. Moreover, the current fire loading scenarios adopted in the post-fire repair research are mostly idealized as constant heating rates or standard fire curves, which may have produced unrealistic fire damage patterns and the associated repairing techniques may be not practical. For future studies, the realistic fire impact and the system-level structural damage investigation are necessary.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.477-480
• /
• 2006

In this study, evaluation of fire-resistant performance for polypropylene fiber-mixed mortar was performed to establish specification for stability of tunnel structure against fire afterward. In the fire-resistant performance test with mix proportion of polypropylene fiber, cracks were observed for mortar under 0.15% of fiber content, but micro-cracks were remarkably reduced for mortar more than 0.2% of fiber content. From the results, we are concluded that optimal mix proportion of polypropylene fiber is $0.20{\sim}0.25%$.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.637-647
• /
• 2018

Numerical approach using finite element method has been used to evaluate the behaviour of reinforced concrete frame structure subjected to fire. The structure is previously designed in accordance with Eurocode standards for the design of structures for earthquake resistance, for the ductility class M. Thermal and structural response are obtained using a commercially available software ANSYS. Temperature-dependent nonlinear thermal and mechanical properties are adopted according to Eurocode standards, with the application of constitutive model for the triaxial behaviour of concrete with a smeared crack approach. Discrete modelling of concrete and reinforcement has enabled monitoring of the behaviour at a global, as well as at a local level, providing information on the level of damage occurring during fire. Critical regions in frame structures are identified and assessed, based on temperatures, displacements, variations of internal forces magnitudes and achieved plastic deformations of main reinforcement bars. Parametric analyses are conducted for different fire scenarios and different types of concrete aggregate to determine their effect on global deformations of frame structures. According to analyses results, the three-dimensional finite element model can be used to evaluate the insulation and mechanical resistance criteria of reinforced concrete frame structures subjected to nominal fire curves.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.18-27
• /
• 2020

An actual fire test was performed on single combustibles placed in a local cinema complex, and quantitative differences in the maximum heat release rate (HRR) and fire growth rate were investigated based on the design fire curve methods (i.e., the general and 2-stage methods). In terms of combustible use and fire load, a total of 12 combustibles were selected, classified into cinema lounge and movie theater. It was found that the maximum HRR and fire growth rate determined using the two-stage method were quantitatively different from those of the general method. The application of the two-stage method, which can be used to determine the fire growth rate of the initial fire stage more precisely, could be useful in accurately predicting the activation time of fire detectors and fire-extinguishing facilities, as well as the available safe egress time (ASET) and required safe egress time (RSET).

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.19-27
• /
• 2017

The effects of changes in area and location of fire source, fire growth rate, and volume of compartment on the major fire characteristics, including heat release rate, in closed compartment fires were examined. To this end, a fire simulation using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was performed for ISO 9705 room with a closed opening. As main result, it was found that the changes in the area and location of fire source did not significantly affect the thermal and chemical characteristics inside the compartment, such as maximum heat release rate, total heat release, maximum temperature at upper layeras well as species concentrations. However, increasinthe fire growth rate and volume of compartment resulted in increase of the maximum heat release rate and total heat release, decrease in the limiting oxygen concentration and increase in the maximum CO concentration. Finally, a methodology for the application of fire growth curves to closed compartment fires was proposed by deriving the correlation of the maximum heat release rate expressed as a function of the fire growth rate and the volume ratio of compartment based on the ISO 9705 room.

• Coupled systems mechanics
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.163-182
• /
• 2020

Coupled thermo-mechanical analysis of reinforced concrete slab at elevated temperatures from a fire accounting for nonlinear thermal parameters is carried out. The main focus of the paper is put on a one-way continuous reinforced concrete slab exposed to fire from the single (bottom) side as the most typical working condition under fire loading. Although contemporary techniques alongside the fire protection measures are in constant development, in most cases it is not possible to avoid the material deterioration particularly nearby the exposed surface from a fire. Thereby the structural fire resistance of reinforced concrete slabs is mostly influenced by a relative distance between reinforcement and the exposed surface. A parametric study with variable concrete cover ranging from 15 mm to 35 mm is performed. As the first part of a one-way coupled thermo-mechanical analysis, transient nonlinear heat transfer analysis is performed by applying the net heat flux on the exposed surface. The solution of proposed heat analysis is obtained at certain time steps of interest by α-method using the explicit Euler time-integration scheme. Spatial discretization is done by the finite element method using a 1D 2-noded truss element with the temperature nodal values as unknowns. The obtained results in terms of temperature field inside the element are compared with available numerical and experimental results. A high level of agreement can be observed, implying the proposed model capable of describing the temperature field during a fire. Accompanying thermal analysis, mechanical analysis is performed in two ways. Firstly, using the guidelines given in Eurocode 2 - Part 1-2 resulting in the fire resistance rating for the aforementioned concrete cover values. The second way is a fully numerical coupled analysis carried out in general-purpose finite element software DIANA FEA. Both approaches indicate structural fire behavior similar to those observed in large-scale fire tests.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.705-724
• /
• 2013

The behaviour of steel column at elevated temperature is significantly different than that at ambient temperature due to its changes in the mechanical properties with temperature. Reported literature suggests that steel column may become vulnerable when exposed to fire condition, since its strength and capacity decrease rapidly with temperature. The present study aims at investigating the lateral load resistance of non-insulated steel columns under fire exposure through finite element analysis. The studied parameters include moment-rotation behaviour, lateral load-deflection behaviour, stiffness and ductility of columns at different axial load levels. It was observed that when the temperature of the column was increased, there was a significant reduction in the lateral load and moment capacity of the non-insulated steel columns. Moreover, it was noted that the stiffness and ductility of steel columns decreased sharply with the increase in temperature, especially for temperatures above $400^{\circ}C$. In addition, the lateral load capacity and the moment capacity of columns were plotted against fire exposure time, which revealed that in fire conditions, the non-insulated steel columns experience substantial reduction in lateral load resistance within 15 minutes of fire exposure.