The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Canadian wood industry have joined in a collaborative effort to develop a numerical model that can predict the fire resistance of load-bearing, gypsum protected, wood-stud wall assemblies. The model is comprised of two sub-models, a heat transfer sub-model, and a structural analysis sub-model. The heat transfer sub-model (developed by Forintek Canada Corp.) uses the finite difference method to predict a) the temperature profile inside the wood-stud wall and b) the time to insulation failure. The time-dependent temperatures are used by a simple elastic buckling sub-model, also developed by forintek Canada Corp., to calculate a) the degradation of the mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, b) cross-section reduction, c) the deflection of the wood studs, and d) the time to structural failure of the assembly. Comparisons with the results of two tests indicate that the heat transfer sub-model predicts the temperature distribution in the wall assembly reasonably well, but the simple elastic buckling sub-model underestiamtes the structural failure and overestiamtes the mid-height deflection of the studs.
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