Effects of Localised or Non-Uniform Heating on Reinforced Concrete Columns

Abstract

This paper describes a research project being conducted to shed light on the response of concrete columns to non-uniform heating, and on the ability to credibly model the response of realistic concrete structures during non-standard fires. A series of 48 one-third scale reinforced concrete (RC) columns are being tested under sustained eccentric axial loading, and exposed to a localised radiant heat source to observe their response, to provide validation data for full-frame structural fire modelling, and to determine the “damage†caused by non-standard fire exposures. All 48 columns are being loaded eccentrically and exposed to a constant incident heat flux at their mid height by means of a propane-fired radiant panel. This paper describes the project, including; the objectives and expected outputs of the project, the experimental test series which is underway, and initial a priori modelling results obtained using the commercially available Finite Element Software ATENA, which will be compared against the results of the experiments once these data are available.