A Study on Structural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Walls Exposed to Hydrocarbon Fire Under Vertical Load

Abstract

In order to investigate the structural behavior of a reinforced concrete wall exposed to a hydrocarbon fire while under a vertical load, fire-resistance tests and numerical analyses are carried out on small-scale reinforced concrete wall specimens. During the fire tests, the wall specimens deform toward the heated side during the early stages of fire. Later they deform toward the non-heated side and finally fail through bending and compression. In numerical analyses to simulate the structural behavior of the small-scale wall specimens, transient creep strain of concrete is calculated assuming dependence on concrete temperature and rate of temperature rise. The results of numerical analyses are in relatively good agreement with the experimental results with respect to vertical deformation of the wall when the amount of transient creep strain is reduced when the rate of concrete temperature rise exceeds 7.5–10.0 K/min.