Towards a practical probabilistic post-fire assessment of concrete slabs

When a structure has been exposed to fire, a decision has to be made whether the structure should be demolished, or may be used in its current state. Therefore, the residual strength should be determined. However, many uncertainties are associated with both the fire duration and the effect of elevated temperatures on the mechanical properties of the materials. Consequently, the maximum allowable load after fire exposure should be assessed based on reliability considerations. As full-probabilistic calculations are too complex and time-consuming for normal use by practitioners, a reliability-based assessment tool has been developed for concrete slabs which determines the maximum allowable imposed load after fire. An application example is presented to illustrate the practical implementation of the proposed method