Post-fire damage assessment of Korean bridges using thermal–structure interaction fire analysis

Abstract

To evaluate fire-induced damage to bridge structures, the thermal–structure interaction (TSI) fire analysis method is proposed, verified and applied to examine the behaviour of bridge superstructures with steel–concrete composite sections and prestressed concrete (PSC) exposed to fire loading. The proposed TSI fire analysis consists of two different modelling parts: thermal transfer analysis and thermodynamic structural analysis. The body temperature inside the structure is first calculated using fire curve boundary conditions in an overall non-linear transient thermal transfer analysis. Thermodynamic structural analysis is then performed based on the entire temperature and heat distribution in the structure. To validate the proposed method, comparisons are made with standard fire test results: the temperature distribution and the deflection of the steel–concrete composite superstructure agreed closely with the results of the standard fire test. The proposed fire analysis method is finally applied to two bridges with different superstructures (steel–concrete composite and PSC) damaged by recent fire events in Korea.