• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.379-394
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• 2013

Post-earthquake fire (PEF) can lead to a rapid collapse of buildings damaged partially as a result of prior earthquake. Almost all standards and codes for the design of structures against earthquake ignore the risk of PEF, and thus buildings designed using those codes could be too weak when subjected to a fire after an earthquake. An investigation based on sequential analysis inspired by FEMA356 is performed here on the Immediate Occupancy, Life Safety and Collapse Prevention performance levels of structures, designed to the ACI 318-08 code, after they are subjected to an earthquake level with PGA of 0.35g. This investigation is followed by a fire analysis of the damaged structures, examining the time taken for the damaged structures to collapse. As a point of reference, a fire analysis is also performed for undamaged structures and before the occurrence of earthquake. The results indicate that the vulnerability of structures increases dramatically when a previously damaged structure is exposed to PEF. The results also show that the damaging effects of post-earthquake fire are exacerbated when initiated from the second and third floor. Whilst the investigation is made for a certain class of structures (conventional buildings, intermediate reinforced structure, 3 stories), the results confirm the need for the incorporation of post-earthquake fire into the process of analysis and design, and provides some quantitative measures on the level of associated effects.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-44
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• 2013

Post earthquake fire (PEF) can lead to the collapse of buildings that are partially damaged in a prior ground-motion that occurred immediately before the fire. The majority of standards and codes for the design of structures against earthquake ignore the possibility of PEF and thus buildings designed with those codes could be too weak when subjected to a fire after an earthquake. An investigation based on sequential analysis inspired by FEMA356 is performed here on the Life-Safety performance level of structures designed to the ACI 318-08 code after they are subjected to two different earthquake levels with PGA of 0.35 g and 0.25 g. This is followed by a four-hour fire analysis of the weakened structure, from which the time it takes for the weakened structure to collapse is calculated. As a benchmark, the fire analysis is also performed for undamaged structure and before occurrence of earthquake. The results show that the vulnerability of structures increases dramatically when a previously damaged structure is exposed to PEF. The results also show the damaging effects of post earthquake fire are exacerbated when initiated from second and third floor. Whilst the investigation is for a certain class of structures (regular building, intermediate reinforced structure, 3 stories), the results confirm the need for the incorporation of post earthquake fire in the process of analysis and design and provides some quantitative measures on the level of associated effects.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1470-1481
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• 2018

Building-level response to post-earthquake fire hazards in steel buildings has been assessed using primarily two-dimensional analyses of the lateral force resisting system. This approach may not adequately consider potential vulnerabilities in the gravity framing system. For this reason, three-dimensional (3D) finite element models of a 10-story case study building with perimeter moment resisting frames were developed to analyze post-earthquake fire events and better understand building response. Earthquakes are simulated using ground motion time histories, while Eurocode parametric time-temperature curves are used to represent compartment fires. Incremental dynamic analysis and incremental fire analysis procedures capture a range of hazard intensities. Findings show that the structural response due to earthquake and fire hazards are somewhat decoupled from one another. Regardless of the level of plastic hinging present in the moment framing system due to a seismic event, gravity column failure is the initiating failure mode in a fire event.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.673-688
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• 2022

Post-earthquake fire is a major threat since most structures are designed allowing some damage during strong earthquakes, which will expose a more vulnerable structure to post-earthquake fire compared to an intact structure. A series of experimental research on steel-concrete composite beam-to-column joints subjected to fire after cyclic loading has been carried out and a clear reduction of fire resistance due to the partial damage caused by cyclic loading was observed. In this paper, by using ABAQUS a robust finite element model is developed for exploring the performance of steel-concrete composite joints in post-earthquake fire scenarios. After validation of these models with the previously conducted experimental results, a comprehensive numerical analysis is performed, allowing influential parameters affecting the post-earthquake fire behavior of the steel-concrete composite joints to be identified. Specifically, the level of pre-damage induced by cyclic loading is regraded to deteriorate mechanical and thermal properties of concrete, material properties of steel, and thickness of the fire protection layer. It is found that the ultimate temperature of the joint is affected by the load ratio while fire-resistant duration is relevant to the heating rate, both of which change due to the damage induced by the cyclic loading.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.137-145
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• 2022

As steel is highly sensitive to temperature variations, fire exposure is more destructive in the case of steel structures in comparison to the concrete ones. The performance of an intermediate three-story steel moment frame with 4 spans was studied under the service load, thermal load and post-earthquake fire in this paper. Also, the effects of passive fire-protection materials such as ordinary cement-based and fire-retardant coatings were investigated. To model and analyze the structure; Abaqus software is utilized. In order to apply the earthquake effect, the push-over analysis method is employed. Changes in the stories deflection, endurance time and growth of nonlinear regions due to losses in the steel stiffness and strength, are among the issues considered in this study. As an interesting finding, the beams protected by ordinary cement-based coating could sustain the fire exposure at least for 30 minutes in all cases. The mentioned time is increased by employing a new fire-retardant protection, which could prevent significant loss in the structure resistance against fire, even after 60 minutes of exposure to fire.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.209-220
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• 2012

Post-earthquake fire (PEF) can lead to a rapid collapse of buildings that have been partially damaged as a result of a prior earthquake. Almost all standards and codes for the design of structures against earthquake ignore the risk of PEF, and thus buildings designed using those codes could be too weak when subjected to a fire after an earthquake. An investigation based on sequential analysis inspired by FEMA356 is performed here on the immediate occupancy (IO), life safety (LS) and collapse prevention (CP) performance levels of two portal frames, after they are pushed to arrive at a certain level of displacement corresponding to the mentioned performance level. This investigation is followed by a fire analysis of the damaged frames, examining the time taken for the damaged frames to collapse. As a point of reference, a fire analysis is also performed for undamaged frames and before the occurrence of earthquake. The results indicate that while there is minor difference between the fire resistances of the fire-alone situation and the frames pushed to the IO level of performance, a notable difference is observed between the fire-alone analysis and the frames pushed to arrive at LS and CP levels of performance and exposed to PEF. The results also show that exposing only the beams to fire results in a higher decline of the fire resistance, compared to exposing only the columns to fire. Furthermore, the results show that the frames pushed to arrive at LS and CP levels of performance collapse in a global collapse mode laterally, whereas at the IO level of performance and fire-alone situation, the collapse mechanism is mostly local through the collapse of beams. Whilst the investigation is conducted for a certain class of portal frames, the results confirm the need for the incorporation of PEF into the process of analysis and design, and provide some quantitative measures on the level of associated effects.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.351-364
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• 2019

Earthquake and fire are both severe disasters for building structures. Since earthquake-induced damage will weaken the structure and reduce its fire endurance, it is important to investigate the behavior of structure subjected to post-earthquake fire. In this paper, steel-concrete composite beam-to-column joints were tested under fire with pre-damage caused by cyclic loads. Beforehand, three control specimens with no pre-damage were tested to capture the static, cyclic and fire-resistant performance of intact joints. Experimental data including strain, deflection and temperature recorded at several points are presented and analyzed to quantify the influence of cyclic damage on fire resistance. It is indicated that the fire endurance of damaged joints decreased with the increase of damage level, mainly due to faster heating-up rate after cyclic damage. However, cracks induced by cyclic loading in concrete are found to mitigate the concrete spalling at elevated temperatures. Moreover, the relationship between fire resistance and damage degree is revealed from experimental results, which can be applied in fire safety design and is worthwhile for further research.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.17-31
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• 2021

Post-earthquake fire is a common disaster which causes serious safety issues to infrastructures. This study aims to investigate the residual loading capacities of circular concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns under post-earthquake fire experimentally and numerically. The experimental programme contains two loading steps - pre-damage cyclic loading at room temperature and transient state tests with constant compression loads. Three finite element models are developed and validated against the test results. Upon validation, a total of 48 numerical results were generated in the parametric study to investigate the effects of thickness and strengths of steel tube, axial compression ratio and damage degree on the fire resistance of circular CFST columns. Based on the analysis on experimental and numerical results, the loading mechanism of circular CFST columns is discussed. A design method is proposed for the prediction of fire resistance time under different seismic pre-damage and compression loads. The predictions by the new method is compared with the newly generated experimental and numerical results and is found to be accurate and consistent with the mean value close to the unity and a coefficient of variation around 1%.

• 한국방재학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.12-19
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• 2011

Drawing on its extensive experience with natural disasters, Japan has been dispatching Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) team to disaster-stricken countries to provide specialist assistance in rescue and medical operations. The JDR team has assisted in the wake of disasters including the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China. Information about the affected area is essential for a rapid disaster response. However, it can be difficult to gather information on damages in the immediate post-disaster period. To help overcome this problem, we have built on an Earthquake Damage Estimation System. This system makes it possible to produce distributions of the earthquake's seismic intensity and structural damage based on pre-calculated data such as landform and site amplification factors for Peak Ground Velocity, which are estimated from a Digital Elevation Model, as well as population distribution. The estimation result can be shared with the JDR team and with other international organizations through communications satellite or the Internet, enabling more effective rapid relief operations.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.77-90
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• 1998

The complex interactions of climate, topography, geology, biota and hwnan activities result in the land cover patterns, which are impacted by natural disturbances such as fire, earthquake and flood. Natural disturbances disrupt ecosystem communities and change the physical environment, thereby generating a new landscape. Community ecologists believe that disturbance is critical in determining how diverse ecological systems function. Fires were once a major agent of disturbance in the North American tall grass prairies, African savannas, and Australian bush. The major focus of this research was to develop stochastic model of spatial process of disturbance or spatial events and simulate the process based on the developed model and it was applied to the fire arrival process in the Great Victoria Desert of Australia, where wildfires generate a mosaic of patches of habitat at various stages of post-fire succession. For this research, Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner(MSS) data covering the period from 1972 to 1994 were utilized. Fire arrival process is characterized as a spatial point pattern irregularly distributed within a region of space. Here, nonhomogeneous planar Poisson process is proposed as a model for the fire arrival process and rejection sampling thinning the homogeneous Poisson process is used for its simulation.