Coupled heat and moisture transfer in timber beams exposed to fire

摘要

This paper describes the modelling of timber beams behaviour when one or more faces are exposed to fire. A computer program for the prediction of two dimensional temperature and water content distribution in timber beams exposed to fire has been developed. The model consists of differential equations for coupled heat and moisture transfer with the corresponding boundary conditions. Furthermore, the model also predicts the char formation in the wood beam as a function of its temperature, moisture, density, etc. Owing to non-linear system of governing equations, solution is obtained by numerical procedures such as finite difference method. Results obtained by numerical model are be compared to the analytical solutions and experimental results published in the literature.