Abstract
The current structural fire design approaches are developed for fully developed compartment fires, the gas temperatures of which can be approximated as uniformly distributed in the compartment. In localized fires, the gas temperature distributions are spatially nonuniform. Recent numerical studies on the response of steel members subjected to localized fires are presented. Simple models based on plume theory and sophisticated computational fluid dynamics model were used to predict the heat fluxes from localized fires to exposed steel members. Thermomechanical simulations were conducted to predict the temperature and structural responses of the members. The numerical models were validated against standard fire tests and localized fire tests. The lateral torsional buckling behavior of simply supported steel beams, failure behavior of restrained steel beams, and buckling behavior of steel columns in localized fires were predicted and compared with the behaviors in the standard fire. The main finding of these studies was due to temperature gradient, the behavior of steel members in localized fires may be totally different from that in the standard fire, and the failure or buckling temperature of steel members in localized fires may be much lower than that in the standard fire. Structural fire design for steel members based on the standard fire may not be conservative if the potential real fires are localized fires.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Mostafaei H, Sultan M, Kashef A (2014) Resilience assessment of critical infrastructure against extreme fires. In: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on structures in fire, pp. 1153–1160
Chow WK (2005) Assessment of fire hazard in small news agents in transport terminal halls. J Archit Eng 11:35–38
Zhang C, Gross JL, McAllister TP (2013) Lateral torsional buckling of steel W-beams subjected to localized fires. J Constr Steel Res 88:330–338
Zhang C, Li GQ, Usmani A (2013) Simulating the behavior of restrained steel beams to flame impingement from localized-fires. J Constr Steel Res 83:156–165
Zhang C, Gross JL, McAllister TP, Li GQ (2014) Behavior of unrestrained and restrained bare steel columns subjected to localized fire. J Struct Eng – ASCE. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0001225
Zhang C, Choe L, Seif M, Zhang Z (2015) Behavior of axially loaded steel short columns subjected to a localized fire. J Constr Steel Res 111:103–111
Zhang C, Zhang Z, Li, G (2016). Simple vs. sophisticated fire models to predict performance of SHS column in localized fire. J Constr Steel Res, 111:103–111
Zhang C, Silva JG, Weinschenk C, Kamikawa D, Hasemi Y (2016) Simulation methodology for coupled fire-structure analysis: modeling localized fire tests on a steel column. Fire Technol 52:239–62. doi:10.1007/s10694-015-0495-9
Heskestad G (1984) Engineering relations for fire plumes. Fire Saf J 7:25–32
McCaffrey BJ (1979) Purely buoyant diffusion flames – some experimental results, NBSIR 79–1910, National Bureau of Standards
Alpert R (1972) Calculation of response time of ceiling-mounted fire detectors. Fire Technol 8:181–195
Quintiere JG, Grove BS (1998) A unified analysis for fire plumes. In: 27th symposium (International) on combustion, The Combustion Institute, pp 2757–2766
Zhang C, Li GQ (2012) Fire dynamic simulation on thermal actions in localized fires in large enclosure. Adv Steel Constr 8:124–136
Hasemi Y, Yokobayashi Y, Wakamatsu T, Ptchelintsev AV (1997) Modeling of heating mechanism and thermal response of structural components exposed to localized fires: a new application of diffusion flame modeling to fire safety engineering. NIST internal report 6030, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg
Lattimer BY (2002) Heat fluxes from fires to surfaces. In: SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering, 3rd edn, Section 2–4
Li GQ, Zhang C (2010) Thermal response to fire of uniformly insulated steel members: background and verification of the formulation recommended by Chinese code CECS200. Adv Steel Constr 6:788–802
Zhang C, Li GQ, Wang YC (2012) Sensitivity study on using different formulae for calculating the temperature of insulated steel members in natural fires. Fire Technol 48:343–366
Zhang C, Li GQ (2013) Modified one zone model for fire resistance design of steel structures. Adv Steel Constr 9:282–297
McGrattan K, McDermott R, Hostikka S, Floyd J (2010) Fire dynamics simulator (version 5) user’s guide, NIST Special Publication 1019-5. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg
Wickstrom U, Duthinh D, McGrattan KB (2007) Adiabatic surface temperature for calculating heat transfer to fire exposed structures. In: Proceedings of the 11th international interflam conference, pp 943–953
Zhang C, Li GQ, Wang RL (2013) Using adiabatic surface temperature for thermal calculation of steel members exposed to localized fires. Int J Steel Struct 13:547–558
Zhang C, Li GQ (2011) Thermal response of steel columns exposed to localized fires – numerical simulation and comparison with experimental results. J Struct Fire Eng 2:311–317
Disclaimer
Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this paper
Cite this paper
Zhang, C., Li, GQ. (2017). Response of Steel Members Subject to Temperature Gradient in Localized Fires. In: Harada, K., Matsuyama, K., Himoto, K., Nakamura, Y., Wakatsuki, K. (eds) Fire Science and Technology 2015. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0376-9_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0376-9_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0375-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0376-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)