Finite element modeling for the progressive collapse analysis of steel stiffened-plate structures in fires

Abstract

This paper is a sequel to the authors’ articles which provided the test data on the progressive collapse of full-scale steel stiffened-plate structures without and with passive fire protection (PFP) under lateral patch loading in fires [1,2]. This paper presents new computational models for the analyses of heat transfer and fire-induced progressive collapse behaviour of steel stiffened plate structures without or with PFP. For this purpose, transient thermal elastic-plastic large-deformation finite element models were formulated. The developed computational models were validated by a comparison with the test data. The novelty of the paper is associated with a new procedure for the fire-induced progressive collapse analysis of steel stiffened-plate structures which is critical for a contribution to fire safety engineering of steel plated structures.