Temperatures during fire tests on structure and its prediction according to Eurocodes

The paper reports on an experimental programme to investigate the global structural behaviour of a compartment in the three-storey steel frame building in a plant of the Mittal Steel Ostrava exposed to fire before demolition. The research project of the Czech Technical University in Prague was focussed on the examination of the temperature development within the various unprotected structural elements and its connections, the corresponding distribution of horizontal forces and the behaviour of the laterally unrestrained beams during the natural fire. The experiment also allowed studying of the heating of external elements, the influence of connection in a wall of sandwich panels, the temperature development in light timber-based panel and the degradation of the timber concrete composite element. Before the compartment fire, a local fire was prepared to verify the models of the temperature development in an unprotected column. The comparisons to the simplified calculations by European standards are included in the text to show their strong and weak points in prediction of temperatures of gas and structural elements during fire. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.