Abstract
Most construction types are adversely affected by fire, if it occurs. If the construction is combustible, then the structure may burn down. But even if it is not combustible, a serious fire, especially a post-flashover fire, may result in major damage or even collapse. This is because few materials are available which can stand prolonged application of high temperatures without degradation or failure.
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Notes
- 1.
There are other countries which use 20 or 30 min fire resistance ratings. It is understood that the purpose of such ratings is to allow for a minimum time period during which occupants can make a safe escape and fire services can complete their search. Such short ratings do not indicate that fires are expected to be only 20 or 30 min in duration.
- 2.
No fire tests have been used or reported for durations over 4 h in the modern era, although some very long fire tests were being conducted in the 1890s and early 1900s.
- 3.
It might be thought that this is not necessarily true, if the response of the test specimen to fire is highly non-linear, in that destruction is disproportionately higher at temperatures which exceed the ASTM E119 curve. However, in practice, no such materials have been identified.
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Babrauskas, V. (2022). A Twenty-First Century Approach to Fire Resistance. In: Naser, M., Corbett, G. (eds) Handbook of Cognitive and Autonomous Systems for Fire Resilient Infrastructures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98685-8_2
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