Behaviour of continuous reinforced concrete floor slabs subjected to different compartment fires

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental results of four continuous reinforced concrete slabs with three compartments under different compartment fire scenarios. The research focuses on the quantitative relationships of the compartment fire temperatures, the temperature distribution along the thickness of the slabs, the vertical and horizontal deflections, the crack patterns and failure modes of the slabs and the corners’ reaction forces. The results indicate that for a continuous floor slab, the central vertical deflection of the slab in the middle compartment is considerably affected by the vertical deflections of the slab in the two edge compartments. The boundary condition, the ratio and arrangement of the top reinforcement of the continuous slab, and the fire spreading scenarios have important effects on the failure mode of the slab in different compartments. It is evident that more severe cracking happened within the slab in the middle compartment compared to the two edge compartments. For the edge compartment, the slab may fail by large deflection and the integrity failure of the slab in the middle compartment may occur. Increasing reinforcement ratio and using the continuous reinforcement are the effective methods to prevent or delay the failure of the continuous slabs with any fire spreading scenarios.