Performance of high strength concrete walls subjected to fire

Abstract

Concrete wall panels 1000(W)×2400(H)×150 mm(T) were subjected to eccentric axial load and both standard fire and hydrocarbon fire to investigate the fire performance of Normal Strength Concrete (NSC) and High Strength Concrete (HSC) walls under fire conditions. Thermal transfer, spalling, and wall displacements were the main factors compared to assess fire performance. The numerical models were built to analyse the structural response to both fire and eccentric axial load.The main findings are: the HSCwalls suffered significantly more damage from hydrocarbon fires than NSC walls primarily due to explosive spalling which reduced the ultimate capacity of the HSC walls. The explosive spalling occurred very early on in the testing when HSC walls were subjected to hydrocarbon fire. Adding polypropylene fibres in concrete component improved fire resistance of HSC walls. © 2011 Taylor & Francis Group, London.