Fire performance of earthquake-damaged reinforced-concrete structures

• Published in: Materials and structures Vol. 49; no. 7; pp. 2971 - 2989
• Main Authors: Shah, Asif H., Sharma, U. K., Kamath, Praveen, Bhargava, Pradeep, Reddy, G. R., Singh, Tarvinder
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.07.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Building construction; Building Materials; Civil Engineering; Compartments; Earthquake damage; Engineering; Fire resistance; Fires; Frames; Machines; Manufacturing; Materials Science; Monitors; Original Article; Processes; Reinforced concrete; Solid Mechanics; Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Three dimensional; Structural performance; Elevated temperature; Pre-damage; Reinforced-concrete structure; Fire
• ISSN: 1359-5997; 1871-6873
• DOI: 10.1617/s11527-015-0699-y

A full-scale reinforced-concrete (RC) three-dimensional (3-D) frame under vertical sustained loads has been subjected to biaxial lateral loads representing earthquake actions followed by a pool fire in a single compartment. A number of sensors were used to monitor the kinematic and thermal fields during the test. The results (strains, displacements and temperatures) provide valuable information about an earthquake-damaged RC structure subjected to fire in the fully developed and decay stages. The thermal field is observed to be non-uniform within the compartment on fire, in contrast to the uniform thermal field assumption (as often adopted and suggested in codes). The earthquake-damaged frame subjected to fire was found to resist the applied vertical loads, despite the reduction in its residual capacity to about one-third of the original value.