Post-fire behaviour of continuous reinforced concrete slabs under different fire conditions

Abstract

An experimental investigation of the performance of reinforced concrete continuous slabs is presented in this paper, following the exposure of the slabs to different compartment fires. The influence that several factors, including compartment fire scenarios, reinforcement ratio, and bar arrangement, have on the deflections, strains, crack patterns, and failure modes is analysed. Results that compared to the uniform fire case, localized or extended punching shear failure modes are more likely to occur in the fire-damaged slabs subjected to the traveling fire due to more cracks. The residual structural stiffness and ultimate loads are enhanced with the increasing reinforcing ratio, but the brittle punching failure readily appeared. Finally, the deflection failure criterion (l/50) and the ACI 318-08 punching shear theory are helpful in predicting the residual ultimate loads of the fire-damaged slabs subjected to any fire scenario.