Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Structural Design
Dr Guillermo Rein
University of Edinburgh
1
GI -> GO
Cold behaviour ≠ Hot behaviour
Traditional Methods
Standard Fire ~1917
Swedish Curves ~1972
Eurocode Parametric Curve ~1995
1400
1200
1000
Temperature (°C)
800
EC - Short
EC - Long
Standard
600
400
200
0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240
Time (minutes)
2
Buildings are Different
Architecture is always seeking out of bound
– higher, larger, new shapes
Traditions
3
Size Matters
Surface Area to Volume Ratio vs Floor Area for a 3m High Square Compartment
2.5
Fire Tests
Surface Area/Volume (1/m)
Real Buildings
1.5
0.5
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Floor Area (m²)
4
Near rectangular?
© KPF Architects
Pompidou Centre
Excel, London
5
Only insulating lining?
©
© Renzo Piano
London Bridge Tower The Gherkin Tower
No ceiling opening?
© Arup/Peter Cook/VIEW
©
Proposed WTC Memorial
Arup Campus
6
Edinburgh Survey: 3,080 compartments
19-20th Century buildings:
66% of volume within
limitations
2008 building: 8%
Suggests modern
architecture increasingly
produces buildings out of
range
Jonsdottir et al
Fire Risk Management 2009
7
Travelling Fires
Far-field ≈ 200-1200 ºC
(Alper’s correlation)
Temperature
Distance
Travelling Fires
Far-field ≈ 200-1200 ºC
(Alper’s correlation)
Total burning
duration is a function
Temperature
Distance
8
Far Field Temperature
Maximum temperature at ceiling jet. Average
calculated over the correlation with the distance
from the fire (Alpert’s correlation)
rff
∫
4
Tmax dr
=
rnf
Tff4
rff − rnf
Tmax − T∞ =
& r 23
5.38 Q ( )
H
m′′∆H c
tb = & ′′
Q
50 MW fire on 200 m2 burns for 30 min
50 MW fire on 1000 m2 burns for 15 min
9
Travelling Fires
Each structural element sees a combination
of Near Field and Far Field temperatures
as the fire travels
Structural
Element
Core
1400
Temperature (ºC)
10
Family of possible fires
Case Study:
Generic Multi-Storey Concrete Structure
11
Rebar Temperature
400ºC
Temperature
0ºC
600 minutes 1200 minutes
Time
1h 18 min
12
Max Deflection vs. Fire Size
1h 54 min
Structural Behaviour
1 0.06
0.9
0.8 0.05
Normalized strain_
Normalized stress_
0.7
0.04
0.6
0.5 0.03
0.4
0.02
0.3 Reb ar t emp erat ure Sag g ing s t rain
St and ard Fire Stand ard Fire
0.2 0.01
Paramet ric - Sho rt ho t Parametric - Sho rt ho t
0.1 Paramet ric - Lo ng co o l Parametric - Lo ng co o l
0 0
0% 50% 100% 0% 50% 100%
Fire area Fire area
0.2 1
0.18 0.9
Normalized deflection_
0.16 0.8
Normalized strain_
0.14 0.7
0.12 0.6
0.1 0.5
0.08 0.4
0.06 Ho g g ing s t rain 0.3 Deflect io n
St and ard Fire St and ard Fire
0.04 Paramet ric - Sho rt ho t
0.2 Paramet ric - Sho rt ho t
0.02 Paramet ric - Lo ng co o l 0.1 Paramet ric - Lo ng co o l
0 0
0% 50% 100% 0% 50% 100%
Fire area Fire area
13
Results for Insulated Steel:
Parametric vs. Travelling fires
Jonsdottir et al, Interflam 2010, Nottingham
Conclusions
In large compartments, a post flashover fire
is not likely to occur, but a travelling fire
Novel framework developed to compliment
traditional methods
Provides range of possible fire dynamics
Travelling fires give more onerous conditions
for the structure
Strengthens collaboration between fire and
structural fire engineers
14
Thanks
Sponsors: Collaborators:
J Stern-Gottfried
A Law
A Jonsdottir
M Gillie
J Torero
Law et al, Engineering Structures 2011
15