CALCULATING THE RESPONSE OF BRIDGES TO A VEHICLE-BASED HYDROCARBON FIRE: SIMPLIFIED METHODOLOGY AND CASE STUDY

摘要

A streamlined simplified methodologyis proposed for the efficient calculation of a bridge's response to a vehicle-based hydrocarbon pool fireresulting from a tanker truck crash via a three-step methodology: (1) calculate the fire's characteristics and geometry,;(2) calculate the heat transfer from the fire to the structural elements;and (3) calculate the temperature increase and resulting material and mechanical response of the structural elements.The approach, which uses a modified discretized solid flame model, synthesizes numerous existing techniques for calculating pool fire characteristics and radiation heat transfer to quantify the extent of damage caused by a specified fire threat.The methodology is demonstrated via a case study of the 2007 MacArthur Maze fire near Oakland, CA, USA.