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Robust and pre-fabrication construction techniques are the cutting edge practice in the building industry. Cold-frame, warm-frame and hybrid-frame are three common Light-gauge Steel Frame (LSF) wall constructions applied for better energy performance. Still, the applications of the aforementioned wall configurations are restricted due to limited fire safety studies. This paper presents the fire performance investigations and results of cold-frame, warm-frame, and hybrid frame LSF walls together with three novel configurations maintaining the same material quantities. Successfully validated 3D heat transfer finite element models were extended to six wall configurations. Time variant temperature profiles from Finite Element Analyses were evaluated against the established Load Ratio (LR)-Hot-Flange (HF) temperature curve to determine the structural fire resistance. Modified warm-frame construction showed the best performance where the Fire Resistance Level (FRL) is approximately twice that of conventional LSF wall configurations. Hence, the novel LSF wall configurations obtained by shifting the insulation material toward the fireside of the wall make efficient fire-resistant wall solutions and the new designs are proposed to be incorporated in modular constructions for enhanced fire performance.

This is a repository copy of Numerical modelling and shear design rules of stainless steel lipped channel sections.

Purpose This research was aimed at investigating the fire performance of LSF wall systems by using 3-D heat transfer FE models of existing LSF wall system configurations. Design/methodology/approach This research was focused on investigating the fire performance of LSF wall systems by using 3-D heat transfer finite element models of existing LSF wall system configurations. The analysis results were validated by using the available fire test results of five different LSF wall configurations. Findings The validated finite element models were used to conduct a parametric study on a range of non-load bearing and load bearing LSF wall configurations to predict their fire resistance levels (FRLs) for varying load ratios. Originality/value Fire performance of LSF wall systems with different configurations can be understood by performing full-scale fire tests. However, these full-scale fire tests are time consuming, labour intensive and expensive. On the other hand, finite element analysis (FEA) provides a simple method of investigating the fire performance of LSF wall systems to understand their thermal-mechanical behaviour. Recent numerical research studies have focused on investigating the fire performances of LSF wall systems by using finite element (FE) models. Most of these FE models were developed based on 2-D FE platform capable of performing either heat transfer or structural analysis separately. Therefore, this paper presents the details of a 3-D FEA methodology to develop the capabilities to perform fully-coupled thermal-mechanical analyses of LSF walls exposed to fire in future.

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Cold-formed Light gauge Steel Frame (LSF) walls lined with plasterboards are increasingly used in the building industry as primary load bearing components. Although they have been used widely, their behaviour in real building fires is not fully understood. Many experimental and numerical studies have been undertaken to investigate the fire performance of load bearing LSF walls under standard fire conditions. However, the standard fire time-temperature curve given in ISO 834 [1] does not represent the fire load present in typical modern buildings that include considerable amount of thermoplastic materials. Some of these materials with high in calorific values increase the fire severity beyond that of the standard fire curve. Fire performance studies of load bearing LSF walls exposed to realistic design fire curves have also been limited. Therefore in this research, finite element thermal models of LSF wall panels were developed to simulate their fire performance using the recently developed realistic design fire time-temperature curves [2]. Suitable thermal properties were proposed for plasterboards and insulations based on laboratory tests and available literature. The developed finite element thermal models were validated by comparing their thermal performance results with available realistic design fire test results, and were then used in a detailed parametric study. This paper presents the details of the developed finite element thermal models of load bearing LSF wall panels under realistic design fire time-temperature curves and the results. It shows that finite element thermal models of LSF walls can be used to predict the fire performance including their fire resistance rating with reasonable accuracy for varying configurations of plasterboard lined LSF walls exposed to realistic design fire time-temperature curves.

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