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Temperature, porosity and strength relationship for fire affected concrete

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Abstract

In a fire incident, structural members are mostly unevenly exposed to temperatures and consequently suffer uneven damage. To rehabilitate and restore these for future usage, it is essential to correctly map the temperature field that the structural elements were subjected to during fire events. The majority of the existing relationships for temperature prediction apply to reinforced concrete beams only. In the present study, a material-porosity-based approach is proposed. Normal and high strength concrete structural elements were exposed to a range of elevated temperatures, and reserved compressive strength was evaluated. Another set of the same specimens were used to determine porosity using four techniques. Based on the observations, correlations among temperature, strength, and porosity for normal and high strength concrete are proposed. The suggested methodology and expressions may be used to predict the reserved strength and temperature field that the structural elements may have been exposed to, based on the evaluated porosity of concrete. Back-scattered electron Imaging was found to be the most fitting method for porosity evaluation.

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All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the submitted article.

Abbreviations

\({\sigma }_{T}\) :

Reserved compressive strength of concrete for any temperature T

\({\sigma }_{RT}\) :

Reserved compressive strength of concrete at room temperature T

\({P}_{T,NSC}\) :

Porosity of NSC at any temperature T

\({P}_{T,HSC}\) :

Porosity of HSC at any temperature T

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Acknowledgements

The support of Structural Engineering Laboratory of Civil Engineering Department and Scanning Electron Microscope & X-Ray Diffraction Laboratories of Department of Geology and Geophysics is gratefully acknowledged.

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No funds, grants, or other support was received.

The present research does not involve human participants or animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India

    Manisha Malik, Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya & Sudhirkumar V. Barai

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  1. Manisha Malik
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All authors whose names appear on the submission. Made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work; Drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content; Approved the version to be published; Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and my resolved.

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Correspondence to Manisha Malik.

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Malik, M., Bhattacharyya, S.K. & Barai, S.V. Temperature, porosity and strength relationship for fire affected concrete. Mater Struct 55, 72 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-022-01898-9

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