Consolidated Fire Analysis—Coupled Thermo-mechanical Modelling for Global Structural Fire Analysis

Abstract

Consolidated fire analysis (CFA) consolidates numerical simulation and physical element testing in order to analyze the global structural behavior of structures in fire. As the testing technique facilitates the investigation of the global behavior of structures in fire while only physically testing a substructure, it might become increasingly important in fire safety engineering. In order to develop an analysis procedure that meets the requirements arising from fire engineering, a benchmark problem has been elaborated and is presented in this paper. This methodological problem can be solved by both, consolidated fire analysis and pure physical testing. This approach allows verifying the results obtained using the consolidated fire analysis technique by pure physical testing. In this paper, the benchmark problem is explained in detail and results from two consolidated fire tests at high temperatures are presented.