Fire Engineering

Abstract

This chapter introduces the basic concepts and methods of fire safety design. The use of computer software in fire engineering is the main theme. Computer software was specially designed for calculating moment capacity. With thermal analysis software, the heat transfer of any new type of steel section in fire can be determined accurately and economically. Shallow floor structures have good inherent fire resistance. However, when the bottom plate of such sections is exposed directly to fire, heat can be transferred along the steel to adjacent compartments. Therefore, although shallow floor construction does not normally need fire protection, partial shielding at compartment corners is still required. Other sections of this chapter are concerned with the fire resistance of composite beams with unfilled voids and temperature modelling with fire flux data and intumescent coating. An objective is to quantitatively predict the amount of additional protection required when the voids between the top flange and the underside of the steel deck are unfilled. The final part of this chapter is to derive a relationship for determining the thickness of intumescent fire protection coating required for shallow floor beams, using existing fire test data. The formula derived can be used for quick, simple design calculation for the required thickness of fire protection.