Abstract
Slim floor systems are very prevalent and several types are being used for construction of residential and commercial buildings. The choice of slim floor systems over traditional floors with down-stand beams is due to their ease of construction when combined with steel decking and their shallower depths. Most of the steel section in these floor systems is embedded within the concrete floor itself, hence, only a small part of bottom flange of steel section is exposed to fire. Substantial amount of experimental work on their fire performance has been conducted since 1980s. Though, they offer an improved fire resistance, however, fire protection materials like intumescent coatings are often applied in cases where a higher fire resistance is desired. Experimental investigations to study thermal properties have also been conducted on steel specimens with intumescent coating applied on their surface. These experiments are focused on thermal response of intumescent coating on fire exposure. This research presents a finite element analysis approach to model the behaviour of a protected slim floor in fire. Initially, finite element analysis has been performed to model the thermal and thermo-mechanical behaviour of an unprotected slim floor and has been validated against reported test data while in the second part, thermal behaviour of an intumescent coating has been modelled and verified. Verified finite element analysis models are then combined to perform thermo-mechanical analysis for a slim floor with intumescent coating being applied on the exposed bottom flange of the steel part. Results show that the protected slim floor displays a higher fire resistance as the temperature of the steel section remains within 400°C even after 60-minute exposure to standard fire. The lower temperatures result in lesser reductions in strength and stiffness, as a result, the protected slim floor undergoes lesser deflections and displays higher fire resistance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STRUCTURAL SAFETY UNDER FIRE & BLAST LOADING, CONFAB 2017, 10TH - 12TH SEPTEMBER 2017 |
| Editors | YOUNG LU, ASIF USMANI, KATHERINE CASHELL, PURNENDU DAS |
| Publisher | ASRANET LTD |
| Pages | 428-437 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-9998536-0-0 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-9998536-0-0 |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 10 Sept 2017 |
Keywords
- Slim floors
- Fire load
- RESPONSE IN FIRE
- Finite element analysis
- Fire protection
- intumescent coating
