Performance of normal and high-strength reinforced concrete walls in fire

摘要

This paper presents a numerical investigation conducted at the University of Melbourne on the performance of normal strength concrete (NSC) and high-strength concrete (HSC) walls in fire. There is an increasing interest in fire safety engineering in Australia and overseas. However, the question of structural adequacy of concrete walls in fire has generally been ignored and the fire-resistance of walls has been taken to refer to performance with regard to insulation and integrity only. The investigation focused on developing a general numerical program (FIRE-CONW) to analyse the behaviour of NSC and HSC walls under elevated temperatures, which was validated by comparing with experimental data. From the investigation, it was determined that no major modifications are needed when considering HSC walls and that provisions recommended by AS 3600 are generally unconservative for load-bearing walls in fire.