Finite Element Analysis of Coated (Intumescent Coating Protection) Cellular Steel Beam (CSB) Expose to Fire

Abstract

Traditionally, standard composite steel beam section acts as a load bearing structural element to sustain an external load. However, in the event of fire, an additional fire load acts on the composite steel beam section. The combined action of the former and latter would accelerate the vertical deformation of the beam. In the case of cellular steel beam (CSB), the vertical deformation predicted to be higher. Due to these circumstances, the structural behaviour of the composite CSB were compromised leading to the critical failure mode of web-post buckling and Vierendeel bending failure. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the behaviour of the composite CSB at elevated temperature under both loading action. In this research work, validation process was initiated between the numerical simulation analysis of CSB exposed to the fire with the readily available experimental data work. The validated model was then used to simulate the composite CSB with newly added fire protection material of intumescent coating. From the finite element simulation, the predicted vertical deformation slightly decreased for thicker intumescent coating application onto the beam surface. In conclusion, by applying the intumescent coating, further improvements were predicted for the vertical deformation and subsequently maintains the strength of the composite CSB at elevated temperature.