Structural fire engineering of building assemblies and frames

Abstract

Use of the temperature-dependent thermophysical material properties, shape geometry, and fundamental heat transfer and structural principles, in combination with available fire test data, can enable several distinct levels of engineering/calculation methods of fire resistance. The simpler computational methods, such as those in ASCE/SFPE 29-05 [1], are semi empirically based on standard fire test results. They provide fire resistance ratings for members and assemblies that do not directly match listed assemblies to meet prescriptive code requirements. Higher-order fire simulations and structural analyses can be used as performance-based design alternatives to achieve a solution to overall fire safety.