Modelling Cracks of Reinforced Concrete Slabs under Fire Conditions

Under fire conditions, the formation of large cracks within reinforced concrete floor slabs may significantly reduce the fire resistance of buildings. At present very little research has been done for modelling integrity failure of reinforced concrete slabs in fire. In this paper a nonlinear hybrid FE model has been developed to predict the large cracks formed in RC floor slabs in fire. The developed model was validated using the previous tested results. The nonlinear model reported in this paper can be used for assessing the integrity failure of the floor slabs in fire.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of Great Britain under Grant No. EP/I031553/1