Quantifying Fire Insulation Effects on the Fire Response of Hybrid-Fiber Reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete Beams

• Published in: Fire technology Vol. 56; no. 4; pp. 1487 - 1525
• Main Authors: Ren, Pengfei, Hou, Xiaomeng, Rong, Qin, Zheng, Wenzhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.07.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Building codes; Building design; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Civil Engineering; Classical Mechanics; Compressive strength; Computer simulation; Engineering; Fiber reinforced concretes; Finite element method; Fire damage; Fire protection; Fire resistance; High temperature; Insulation; Mathematical models; Model accuracy; Parameters; Physics; Thermal properties; Thermodynamic properties; Thickness; Three dimensional models; Ultra high performance concrete; Fire resistance; Partial fire insulation damage; 3D FE model; Fire insulation; Insulated reinforced RPC beams
• ISSN: 0015-2684; 1572-8099
• DOI: 10.1007/s10694-019-00937-2

The fire performance of reinforced reactive powder concrete (RPC) beams has raised much concern due to the sensitivity of these beams to high temperature and relatively lower fire resistance. To achieve the fire-resistance ratings as specified in building design codes, a fire insulation layer is often required. However, very limited research has been conducted on the effect of fire insulation on the fire resistance of reinforced RPC beams. Hence, using the commercial software ABAQUS, a three-dimensional sequentially coupled thermal-stress finite element (FE) model was developed to simulate the response of insulated reinforced RPC beams to fire. Comparisons between the FE predictions and the existing fire test results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed FE model. In addition, the validated FE model was used to study the effect of fire insulation parameters, including the thermal properties, thickness, height, setting mode, and local fire insulation damage, on the fire response of reinforced RPC beams. The results showed that the failure of reinforced RPC beams with partial loss of fire insulation occurred at the area of missing fire protection. Additionally, the effect of the following important parameters on the fire resistance of insulated reinforced RPC beams was investigated: compressive strength of RPC, reinforcement ratio, load ratio, thickness of RPC cover, beam width, and span-depth ratio.