The influence of the fire source location on the load-bearing capacity of timber beam exposed to fire

The fire development in timber buildings may have a different intensity depending on the location in which the fire originated. The large-space timber buildings are characterized by a large area with a comparatively low height, which makes fire-gas evacuation and air circulation difficult. This paper presents an investigation on the influence of the fire source location on the load-bearing capacity of timber beam exposed to fire. The finite element software Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was used for numerical fire modelling, specifying the time-varying spatial maps of the fire-plume-gas temperature on the basis of the equations taken from the fluid dynamics methodology with aerodynamic and thermodynamic variables. The obtained results from the FDS were used to determine the load-bearing capacity of timber beam using the SAFIR software. The results of numerical simulations showed that the fire source location has a significant influence on the load-bearing capacity of timber beam exposed to fire