Experiments and Modeling of Unprotected Structural Steel Elements Exposed to a Fire.
Experiments and Modeling of Unprotected Structural Steel
Elements Exposed to a Fire.
(300 K)
Hamins, A.; McGrattan, K. B.; Prasad, K. R.;
Maranghides, A.; McAllister, T.
Fire Safety Science. Proceedings. Eighth (8th)
International Symposium. International Association for
Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). September 18-23, 2005,
Beijing, China, Intl. Assoc. for Fire Safety Science,
Boston, MA, Gottuk, D. T.; Lattimer, B. Y.,
Editor(s)(s), 189-200 pp, 2005.
Keywords:
fire research; fire safety; fire science; steel
structures; steels; computational fluid dynamics;
compartment fires; structural response; experiments;
temperature; fire models; thermal response; simulation;
uncertainty; sensitivity; surface temperature
Abstract:
A large-scale fire experiment was conducted to assess
the accuracy of a combination of gas and solid-phase
models designed to predict the temperatures of
structural steel elements exposed to a fire. The
experiment involved a 2 MW heptane spray fire in a
compartment that was nominally 4 m by 7 m by 4 m tall.
The compartment openings were designed such that natural
ventilation flowed into the compartment from one side
and flowed out through the opposing side. Measurements
included the surface temperature of uninsulated steel
elements and the temperature of the upper layer gases in
the compartment. The measurements were compared to
predictions made by a computational fluid dynamics model
of the fire coupled with a finite-element model of the
steel. The numerical predictions of the steel surface
temperatures were within 8% of the measurements
on-average. An analysis showed that the uncertainty in
the prediction could be attributed to the uncertainty in
the prescribed heat release rate in the fire model.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899