BEHAVIOUR OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES IN FIRE

In the past two decades, a significant amount of research has been conducted into the performance of composite steel-framed structures in fire. However, the same level of development has not taken place for other forms of construction. In terms of reinforced concrete construction, design is still based on simplistic methods which have been developed from standard fire tests that do not necessarily represent real building behaviour. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to determine the level of safety achieved in real concrete structures, or whether an appropriate level of safety could be achieved more efficiently. In this study detailed analyses of a reinforced concrete structure subject to a standard fire regime are carried out. The building is designed to Eurocode 2 and represents a commercial office building. In order to study the interactions between the cool and hot zones of the structure, a series of analyses has been carried out for different extents and positions of localised fire compartments. It is clear that adjacent cool structure provides considerable restraint and continuity, increasing the fire resistance of the structure within the fire compartment. Relatively small areas of tensile membrane force are formed within the concrete slabs, an