Experimental studies of the behaviour of unprotected steel frames in fire

✍ Scribed by J.C. Zhao; Z.Y. Shen

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 176 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0143-974X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0143-974x(98)00246-6

✦ Synopsis

The deformation behaviour of unprotected steel framed structures exposed to real fire conditions has been studied experimentally and theoretically. A total of three tests on steel frames under different load level and different heating process are conducted, all the tested frames are single span and single story. In order to simulate a real fire condition, heating is attained by a specially built gas furnace. Behaviour of each tested frame in fire is described and comparisons are made between fire test results and results calculated by a 2D finite element computer program-NASFAF developed in the paper. The secant stiffness matrix which relating the total element displacements to the corresponding total element nodal forces is used in developing the program and the effects of geometrical non-linearity, "softening" of material at elevated temperature, gradual penetration of inelastic zone both along and across each member, non-uniform distribution of temperature are all taken into consideration. Creep effect is considered in an approximate way in the temperature-dependent stress-strain curves of the material.