Abstract
Slim floor systems are very common nowadays and various types are currently being used for the construction of high-rise buildings and car parks. Concrete in slim floor beams encases the steel beam section which helps to improve their fire resistance. Despite their higher fire resistance, several fire protection materials like intumescent coatings are often used to achieve a higher fire resistance where desired. The thermal properties and behaviour of various intumescent coating materials were previously studied through experimental investigations. This paper presents finite element analyses to simulate the response of unprotected and protected slim floor beams in fire using different simulation tools. For this purpose, fire tests conducted on unprotected slim floor beams and intumescent coating materials are modelled using research and commercial software. Results from the analyses are compared and verified with the available test data. These validated models are later combined to study the behaviour of protected slim floor beams in fire. Results from the study show that the research and the commercial software replicate the behaviour of slim floor beams and protection materials with good accuracy. Due to the presence of the intumescent coating, the protected slim floor beams displayed a better fire resistance as the temperature of the steel part remained below 400 °C even after 60-min of standard heating. The protected slim floor beams continued to support the external loads even after 120 min of heating.
Highlights
The design of steel-concrete composite floors has changed over the years and various types have been introduced with shallower depths, the slim floor systems
The research study presented here is purely based on finite element modelling (FEM) and analysis while the test data on slim floors and intumescent coatings used during the study are adopted from previous experimental investigations
As the fire protection materials do not have any contribution towards the structural resistance of members, FEM for the intumescent coating material is kept limited to thermal response only
Summary
The design of steel-concrete composite floors has changed over the years and various types have been introduced with shallower depths, the slim floor systems. During 2029–2021, detailed experimental investigations on slim floor beams have been conducted at Ulster University where the effect of steel reinforcement as an alternative to traditional fire protection methods was investigated [11] In addition to these fire tests, fire tests on slim floor beams with different web openings were conducted [12]. A finite element modelling (FEM) method is presented to predict the thermal and thermo-mechanical response of slim floors exposed to fire For this purpose, commercial software, ABAQUS [13] and research software, SAFIR [14], are employed. An earlier study conducted by the authors covers only the thermal behaviour of slim floors in fire [15], this research presents a detailed methodology to perform thermal and thermo-mechanical analysis of unprotected and protected slim floor beams. In addition to the performance of each modelling tool, this study highlights the benefits and deficiencies associated with 2D and 3D FEM approaches and underlines whether the time saving 2D modelling approach is a reliable alternative to a lengthy 3D approach
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