Holistic behaviour of concrete buildings in fire

This paper discusses various modes of structural behaviour of a concrete building when subjected to a fire, based on observations from a full-scale test. Although some data were lost during the test, the available results and observations presented provide a valuable insight into the holistic behaviour of concrete buildings when subjected to fire. The tested building was constructed using elements formed from normal and high-strength concrete and was designed for 60 min fire resistance, using the UK Design Code. High-strength concrete was used for the columns within the fire compartment and since it has previously been shown that this type of concrete is susceptible to spalling, polypropylene fibres were added to the concrete mix during construction to alleviate the problem. Both the UK and European codified design methods suggest that concrete spalling within the fire compartment should have been nominal and could effectively be ignored during the design. However the test showed that spalling of the floor slab was extensive and exposed the bottom steel reinforcement. Although concrete spalling considerably reduced the flexural strength of the slab, collapse did not occur. This could be attributed to the slab behaving in compressive membrane action, which is currently not considered in codified design methods. The test also showed significant lateral displacement of external columns due to thermal expansion of the heated slab. The main observations from the test show that designers will need to understand the behaviour of entire structures in fire, to ensure that premature collapse will not occur.