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.