Abstract
Offshore and onshore structures continuously experience hydrocarbon fire accidents almost every year. To secured structure against extreme fire conditions, passive fire protection (PFP) is applied. However, PFP is a costly material which is applied only on critical structural members. Any unprotected surface can cause major structural damages during fire incidence if the behaviour of an unprotected surface is unknown. Usually, PFP applied easily around the column, but for beams, the application varies with the beam locations. In this paper the behaviours of steel beam compared with three different common scenarios such as fully protected, unprotected and partially protected under hydrocarbon fire. Fully protected beam has tremendous fire resisting capability compared to partially protected beams or unprotected beams. The study revealed that temperature of the top flange in partially protected beam exceeds more 600°C in less than 10 minutes which caused rapid failure in less than 30 minutes. Under extreme fire conditions the strength and stiffness of a beam affected which cause instability of structure during fire accident.
Highlights
Hydrocarbon fire accidents are common in the Oil and Gas (O&G) industry due to several processes related activities [1,2,3,4]
Columns are protected from all sides which is less critical element compared to beams-column connections and partially unprotected beams supports top slab [1, 6]
Effects of fire & passive fire protection (PFP) was considered during thermal analysis using Fire and Heat Transfers Simulation (FAHTS) and static loading with FEM using Ultimate Strength for Offshore Structure (USFOS)
Summary
Hydrocarbon fire accidents are common in the Oil and Gas (O&G) industry due to several processes related activities [1,2,3,4]. PEMEX Abkatun A processing platform where a gas leak, followed by hydrocarbon fire took the lifes of four worker several were injured and caused structural damage as shown in Fig. 1 [7]. The Passive fire protection (PFP) materials are the best solution to maintain structure integrity during accident which maintained. Columns are protected from all sides which is less critical element compared to beams-column connections and partially unprotected beams supports top slab [1, 6]. Under normal composite construction steel beam exposed from three sides. When bottom flange and web is protected the temperature of top flange received highest heat flux from the graded steel deck. Nonlinear finite element analysis has been presented to highlight the significance of partially protected beams in designing O&G structures
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