Abstract
Reinforced concrete structures are sensitive to fire exposure of mainly two reasons. They may be subject to explosive spalling, and they may lose their load-bearing capacity due to high temperatures. Spalling is particularly hazardous as it may occur more or less abruptly and unanticipated. It usually starts within 30 min of severe fire exposure. It may depend on several mechanisms or combinations thereof such as pore pressure, stresses due to temperature gradients, differences of thermal dilatation and chemical degradations at elevated temperatures. Reinforcement bars of steel lose their strength at temperature levels above 400 °C. Prestressed steel may even loose strength below that level. Concrete loose as well both strength and stiffness at elevated temperature.
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References
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Wickström, U. (2016). Temperatures of Concrete Structures. In: Temperature Calculation in Fire Safety Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30172-3_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30172-3_14
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