A Numerical Model of Reinforced Concrete Members Exposed to Fire and After-Cooling Analysis

Abstract

This paper introduces a numerical analysis method for reinforced-concrete(RC) members exposed to fire and proposes considerations in designing RC structures on the basis of the comparison between numerical results and design codes. The proposed analysis method consists of two procedures of the transient heat transfer analysis and the non-linear structural analysis. To exactly evaluate the structural behavior under fire, two material models are considered in this paper. One is "Under-Fire" condition for the material properties at the high temperature and the other one is "After-Cooling" condition for the material properties after cooling down to air temperature. The proposed method is validated through the correlation study between experimental data and numerical results. In advance, the obtained results show that the material properties which are fittable to the corresponding temperature must be taken into account for an accurate prediction of the ultimate resisting capacity of RC members. Finally, comparison of the numerical results with the design code of EN1992-1-2 also shows that the design code needs to be revised to reserve the safety of the fire-damaged structural member.