Numerical Study on Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Columns Subjected to Fire

Abstract

This paper presents a finite element (FE) based numerical approach to predict the thermal and mechanical response of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) columns subjected to fire. A sequentially coupled nonlinear thermo-mechanical analysis is carried out using ABAQUS® to obtain the temperature distribution and deformation profile in reinforced concrete (RC) columns subjected to simultaneous mechanical and thermal loading. The material and geometric nonlinearities, along with the temperature dependent thermal and mechanical properties of the reinforcing steel and the SFRC, are duly incorporated in the FE model. The thermal and mechanical response quantities predicted by the FE model are compared with that measured from the fire tests on the SFRC columns. The comparison shows that the developed FE model is capable of predicting the response of the SFRC columns subjected to thermal and mechanical loading with adequate accuracy. The developed FE model can be used to undertake detailed parametric study for quantifying the influence of critical factors on fire resistance of the SFRC columns.