Summary This paper presents the extended travelling fire method (ETFM) framework, which considers both energy and mass conservation for the fire design of large compartments. To identify its capabilities and limitations, the framework is demonstrated in representing the travelling fire scenario in the Veselí Travelling Fire Test. The comparison between the framework and the test is achieved through performing a numerical investigation of the thermal response of the structural elements. The framework provides good characterization of maximum steel temperatures and the relative timing of thermal response curves along the travelling fire trajectory, though it does not currently address a non‐uniform fire spread rate. The test conditions are then generalized for parametric studies, which are used to quantify the impact of other design parameters, including member emissivity, convective heat transfer coefficient, total/radiative heat loss fractions, fire spread rate, fire load density, and various compartment opening dimension parameters. Within the constraints of this study, the inverse opening factor and total heat loss prove to be the most critical parameters for structural fire design.

The paper presents behaviour of gusset plate connections in compression. The finite element method is employed to examine the buckling resistance of the gusset plate connections. The FE model is validated to results of physical tests and verified by an analytical solution based on existing formulas. Finally, a parametric study is performed. The studied parameters include gusset plate thickness and size, types of connection between the gusset plate and frame members and stiffeners.

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The paper describes a virtual furnace for fire-resistance tests following standard fire conditions. The model takes advantage of great possibilities of computational fluid dynamics code Fire Dynamics Simulator. The model is based on an accurate representation of a real fire furnace of fire laboratory PAVUS a.s. located in the Czech Republic. It includes geometry of the real furnace, material properties of the furnace linings, burners, ventilation conditions and also a tested specimen with measurement devices. The model allows controlling of gas temperature and the static over pressure in the volume of the furnace as it is specified in requirements of European standard for fire resistance tests. The accuracy of the model is validated to a fire test of empty horizontal furnace executed in the fire laboratory, which was except other carried out to harmonize initial settings of burners in the model. Then, the virtual furnace is used to investigate thermal behaviour for fireresistance test of a steel beam. The results of the virtual furnace illustrate the great potential for investigating the thermal behaviour of fire-resistance tests.