Fire Design Of Concrete Structures Materials Structures And Modelling

Fire design of concrete structures has emerged in recent years as a high profile subject of great interest to both experts and the public. This has been largely prompted by severe damage to concrete in a number of recent tunnel fires, as well as a considerable amount of research and development that has taken place world-wide. fib Task Group 4.3, "Fire Design of Concrete Structures", therefore took the initiative to develop this bulletin in order to present the results of this international research to a wider group of concrete professionals. The report presents a general brief outline of the effect of fire on both concrete material and concrete structures, with emphasis placed on the important developments of the past few years, namely: (a) the increasing use of high strength concrete (HSC) in buildings, tunnels and bridges; (b) the growing acceptance of the use of performance based fire engineering calculations for the structural analysis and design against fire; (c) the problem of, and solutions to, explosive spalling; and (d) fires in tunnels. This report is not intended to be an exhaustive review of the effect of fire on concrete and concrete structures, nor to present a database of properties at high temperature. Instead, the main aims of this document are to present recent trends and developments, highlight key influencing factors, bring together the disparate but related issues in one short document, highlight the deficiencies in current practice and point to the future. The basic principles of performance based codes and fire engineering are also presented on the assumption that the reader is not a specialist in this field.

Concrete is well known to behave efficiently in fire conditions, as it is incombustible, does not emit smoke, and provides good thermal insulation. Furthermore, in reinforced concrete structures, the concrete cover gives a natural protection to the reinforcement, and the size of the sections often delays the heating of the core, thus favouring the fire resistance of the structural members. In addition, concrete structures are often robust and therefore able to accommodate local damage without major consequences to the overall structural integrity. However, past experience with real fires shows that a thorough understanding of concrete behaviour and structural mechanics is still needed to improve the design of R/C structures with respect to fire. The objective of fib Bulletin 46 is to augment the current knowledge about concrete and concrete structures under fire, not only for the design of new structures, but also for the analysis and repair of existing fire-damaged structures. Both structural and materials issues are examined, and the results of the most recent research activities on the structural performance of concrete subjected to fire are reported. Special attention is paid to the indirect actions caused by the restrained thermal deformations and several basic examples show how a local fire influences global structural behaviour. fib Bulletin 46 is intended for use by practicing engineers to improve their understanding of the behaviour of concrete structures in fire and thereby produce better and safer design standards.

The International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib) is a pre-normative organization. 'Pre-normative' implies pioneering work in codification. This work has now been realized with the fib Model Code 2010. The objectives of the fib Model Code 2010 are to serve as a basis for future codes for concrete structures, and present new developments with regard to concrete structures, structural materials and new ideas in order to achieve optimum behaviour. The fib Model Code 2010 is now the most comprehensive code on concrete structures, including their complete life cycle: conceptual design, dimensioning, construction, conservation and dismantlement. It is expected to become an important document for both national and international code committees, practitioners and researchers. The fib Model Code 2010 was produced during the last ten years through an exceptional effort by Joost Walraven (Convener; Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands), Agnieszka Bigaj-van Vliet (Technical Secretary; TNO Built Environment and Geosciences, The Netherlands) as well as experts out of 44 countries from five continents.

Design of Fire-resistant Concrete Structures gives a thorough insight into the behaviour of concrete structures when exposed to fire. It mixes theory, including physics and analysed data, with practice, and shows design methods for beams, slabs, columns and walls of fire-exposed cross-sections. It explains the physical processes that concrete materials experience when exposed to high temperatures, therefore allowing engineers to make informed decisions when choosing materials and designing concrete structures.

The International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib) is a pre-normative organization. 'Pre-normative' implies pioneering work in codification. This work has now been realized with the fib Model Code 2010. The objectives of the fib Model Code 2010 are to serve as a basis for future codes for concrete structures, and present new developments with regard to concrete structures, structural materials and new ideas in order to achieve optimum behaviour. The fib Model Code 2010 is now the most comprehensive code on concrete structures, including their complete life cycle: conceptual design, dimensioning, construction, conservation and dismantlement. It is expected to become an important document for both national and international code committees, practitioners and researchers. The fib Model Code 2010 was produced during the last ten years through an exceptional effort by Joost Walraven (Convener; Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands), Agnieszka Bigaj-van Vliet (Technical Secretary; TNO Built Environment and Geosciences, The Netherlands) as well as experts out of 44 countries from five continents.

The second edition of the Structural Concrete Textbook is an extensive revision that reflects advances in knowledge and technology over the past decade. It was prepared in the intermediate period from the CEP-FIP Model Code 1990 (MC90) to fib Model Code for Concrete Structures 2010 (MC2010), and as such incorporates a significant amount of information that has been already finalized for MC2010, while keeping some material from MC90 that was not yet modified considerably. The objective of the textbook is to give detailed information on a wide range of concrete engineering from selection of appropriate structural system and also materials, through design and execution and finally behaviour in use. The revised fib Structural Concrete Textbook covers the following main topics: phases of design process, conceptual design, short and long term properties of conventional concrete (including creep, shrinkage, fatigue and temperature influences), special types of concretes (such as self compacting concrete, architectural concrete, fibre reinforced concrete, high and ultra high performance concrete), properties of reinforcing and prestressing materials, bond, tension stiffening, moment-curvature, confining effect, dowel action, aggregate interlock; structural analysis (with or without time dependent effects), definition of limit states, control of cracking and deformations, design for moment, shear or torsion, buckling, fatigue, anchorages, splices, detailing; design for durability (including service life design aspects, deterioration mechanisms, modelling of deterioration mechanisms, environmental influences, influences of design and execution on durability); fire design (including changes in material and structural properties, spalling, degree of deterioration), member design (linear members and slabs with reinforcement layout, deep beams); management, assessment, maintenance, repair (including, conservation strategies, risk management, types of interventions) as well as aspects of execution (quality assurance), formwork and curing. The updated textbook provides the basics of material and structural behaviour and the fundamental knowledge needed for the design, assessment or retrofitting of concrete structures. It will be essential reading material for graduate students in the field of structural concrete, and also assist designers and consultants in understanding the background to the rules they apply in their practice. Furthermore, it should prove particularly valuable to users of the new editions of Eurocode 2 for concrete buildings, bridges and container structures, which are based only partly on MC90 and partly on more recent knowledge which was not included in the 1999 edition of the textbook.