An-Najah Staff

Fire represents one of the most severe environmental conditions to which structures may be subjected and, hence, the provision of appropriate fire safety measures for structural members is an important aspect of design. The recent introduction of performancebased codes has increased the focus on fire resistance evaluation through computer models. One of the key components for fire resistance evaluation of reinforced concrete (RC) members is the high-temperature properties of concrete and reinforcing (prestressing) steel. Even to date, there is limited information on high-temperature constitutive relationships. This paper presents a comparative study of the high-temperature concrete constitutive relationships and illustrates the variations in the high-temperature properties of concrete. The available constitutive relationships for concrete and steel in the American and European standards are reviewed and compared to published experimental results. The different fire resistance predictions that result due to variations in the hightemperature materials properties are illustrated through case studies. Recommendations are drawn for adopting the suitable constitutive relationships for performance-based design of RC members.

Fire is one of the most severe conditions to which structures can be subjected, and hence, the provision of appropriate fire safety measures for structural members is an important aspect of design. The recent introduction of performance-based codes has increased the use of computer-based models for fire resistance assessment. For evaluating the fire resistance of steel structures, high-temperature properties of steel are to be specified as input data. This paper reviews high-temperature constitutive relationships for steel currently available in American and European standards, and highlights the variation between these relationships through comparison with published experimental results. The effect of various constitutive models on overall fire resistance predictions is illustrated through case studies. It is also shown that high-temperature creep, which is not often included in constitutive models, has a significant influence on the fire response of steel structures. Results from the case studies are used to draw recommendations on the use of appropriate constitutive models for fire resistance assessment. Read More: http://ascelibrary.org/action/showAbstract?page=423&volume=22&issue=5&jo...