Behavior of Steel Beams Subjected to Bending and Shear Loading Under Localized Fire Conditions

Abstract

Civil structures were designed to carry a variety of loading during their service life, including fire hazards. As a result, providing fire safety to structural members is one of the most important tasks in civil infrastructure design. Steel structural members are subject to fire-induced damage or collapse due to their high heat conductivity and quick loss of strength and stiffness qualities. Furthermore, the failure in steel beams under the combined effects of bending, shear, and fire loading is poorly understood in the literature. A present study consists of experimental investigations on the fire response of steel beams under bending and shear dominant loading. The specimens have a constant length of 1250 mm. The total depth of the specimens was changed according to the section chosen: 4 in, 6 in, and 8 in (10 cm, 15 cm, and 20 cm). The results of tests show that beams can fail suddenly due to a high drop in yield and ultimate strength of the steel beam. the increase in temperature degree reduced greatly the yield and ultimate flexural strength of the steel beams with different sizes (for all groups). This reduction reached at some times to 50% for the ultimate strength capacity of the specimen. Shear strength is also affected greatly by fire exposure and the reduction reached to about 38%. Furthermore, the design strength capacity can only tolerate loads at low temperatures. This reduction in strength was noted under flexural and shear dominant loading. Moreover, the design strength capacity can withstand against loading at low-temperature degrees only.