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Modelling the Thermal and Structural Performance of a Concrete Column Exposed to a Travelling Fire – Tisova Fire Test
Abstract
The Tisova Fire Test was a large real scale fire test conducted in the Czech Republic in January 2015 inside of a 4-storey concrete frame building, with concrete and composite deck floors. The ground floor test compartment had a total area of ca. 230m2 with a height of 4.4m. The fire compartment included four columns from the original 1958 concrete construction, one of which was instrumented retroactively for temperatures, chosen due to its higher likelihood of observable thermal and structural response. This paper presents selected results from the thermal environment around, and the thermal response of, the column showing the variability of temperatures through the compartment height. The paper proceeds to model the thermal response of the column from 1) the real fire scenario, and 2) equivalent areas under the standard fire curve. These thermal profiles are then used to assess the reduction of the columns cross-sectional capacity, and shows that using equivalent fire durations is not an appropriate method to calculate the thermal and structural response of concrete columns exposed to a travelling fire.