Fire Retrofitting of High Rise Buildings by Manual Approach

Abstract

Concrete is generally fire resistant. A fire in a concrete structure rarely results in a serious damage as to require substantial demolition. To work out proper and efficient repair strategy, however, would require a thorough investigation of the effect of fire on the structural properties of the concrete and steel; the significance which any permanent change in material characteristics may have on the future structural performance of the member; the feasibility of repairs to compensate of any unacceptable reduction in structural performance, durability, and so on; and the influence which fire exposure of individual member may have on the performance of the entire structure. These mentioned tasks are dependent on the complete analysis of the fire-damaged building. Without it, no repair works estimation, extent of repair and kind of repair can be carried out for the fire-damaged buildings. Therefore, the impeccable analysis and design is of utmost importance for repair of such buildings after preliminary investigation of the extent of fire damages to the concrete structural members. This forms the basis of this research study, which aims at detailed analysis and design of the actual existing high-rise fire-damaged buildings for fire retrofitting and assessment of fire damages by non-destructive techniques. Fire damages in buildings due to explosion, accidents or by some other reasons cause severe structural damages. The structural integrity of existing buildings is now a burning issue. Analytical, theoretical and design-cum-construction techniques are constantly being reviewed by government agencies and engineering consultants. Therefore, researchers are delving into this matter to find the best retrofitting techniques for fire-damaged buildings. This paper is an outcome of such detailed research studies. It covers the actual case study of existing buildings, review of existing knowledge for fire damages and their mitigation and protective design technologies, and analytical and computational techniques, which have limited research data. In this study, Extended 3D Analysis of Building Systems (ETABS ) is used as software for fire retrofitting analysis, and UBC-97 is used as a code for the fire analysis and design. The ETABS building model is verified by manual calculations as well.