Methodology for assessment of the fire-resistant quality of reinforced-concrete floors protected by fire-retardant coatings

Abstract

In the work, the tests have been analysed for fire-resistant quality of hollow-core reinforced-concrete floors with fire-retardant plaster covering. A two-dimensional physical model and computer model have been developed in the ANSYS FLUENT software environment, which includes a system of equations and boundary conditions, taking into account the thermal conductivity in the coating and concrete, as well as complex convection-radiation heat transfer in air voids. A one-dimensional multilayer mathematical model has been developed, equivalent to a two-dimensional model of the thermal state of hollow-core reinforced-concrete floor with fire-retardant plaster covering, with the specific these layers’ thicknesses. A methodology has been developed in the article, based on solving the direct and inverse heat conduction problems, with the help of which it is possible to assess the fire-resistant quality of hollow-core reinforced-concrete floors with and without fire-retardant coatings. The developed methodology was applied to determine the thermophysical (heating constant and specific heating capacity per unit volume) and fire-retardant characteristics of the studied plaster covering according to the results of tests for fire-resistant quality of reinforced-concrete floors with this fire-retardant coating. The conclusion was made about the effectiveness of this coating and the boundaries of using the fire-retardant coatings to ensure normalizable values for the limit of the fire-resistant quality of hollow-core reinforced-concrete floors.