Temperature of Connections During Fire on Steel Framed Building

To study the global structural and thermal behaviour of buildings in fire, a research project was conducted including a full-scale test on a three storey steel frame building at Mittal Steel Ostrava before demolition. The main goal of the experiment was to verify the method for predicting joint temperatures and to improve it for the cooling phase. The fire compartment extending over a floor area of 24 m(2) was built on the second floor. The fire load was 140 kg/m(2) of wood and the ventilation was limited to an opening of 1,400x 1,970 mm. This paper presents the time-temperature curves showing the development of the fire in the compartment and in the primary and secondary beams and its header plate connections. Comparisons are made between the test results and the temperatures predicted by the structural Eurocodes. The sensitivity of the connection behaviour to the estimated temperatures and associated degradation in material properties during the fire is demonstrated.