Assignment: Fire resistant design of steel and composite structures

Design data:

1. Eight storey steel framed structure (Figure to the right).

Braced simple construction. Each storey 4.2m high. Plan
arrangement (Figure next page): 3 bays (primary beams,
6m, 9m, 6m) by 5 bays (secondary beams, each 9m).
2. Steel column sizes on bottom floor: internal columns:
305x198UC; edge columns: 305x137UC; corner
columns: 254x98UC. No need to consider bending
moments.
3. Steel beams in composite action with floor slabs. No
need to consider lateral torsional buckling. Beam
sections: edge beams and 6m primary beams:
356x171x51UB; interior secondary
beams: 305x165x40UB; 9m long primary A142 mesh:
beams: 610x229x101UB. T6@200mm
4. Floor slab construction (Figure to the
right): 130mm overall height, 100mm
average height. Designed for 3 m span 70
between secondary beams at ambient
temperature. Steel decking thickness:
0.7mm. Steel reinforcement mesh: A142, 60
with an average distance of 70mm from
top of the slab.
5. Steel grade S355, Concrete Grade C30, Reinforcement yield strength 500N/mm2. Material
partial safety factors at ambient temperature: steel: 1.05, concrete 1.5, reinforcement 1.15.
Material partial safety factors for fire design: steel: 1.0, concrete 1.0, reinforcement: 1.0.
6. Consider vertical loads only. Permanent action (Gk): 4 kN/m2, variable action (Qk): 3.5 kN/m2.
Partial safety factors for loads at ambient temperature: Gk: 1.35, Qk: 1.5. Partial safety factors
for loads for fire design: Gk: 1.0, Qk: 0.5
7. Fire protection in the form of boards (density = 900 kg/m3, specific heat = 1000 J/(kg.K) and
thermal conductivity = 0.3 W/(m.K)).

For fire safety design, the following two load carrying mechanisms may be assumed.

Mechanism 1: Ambient temperature load path and members in bending

In this method, the structural load carrying mechanism in fire is the same as at ambient temperature as
follows: from 3m span floor slabs to secondary beams to primary beams to columns.

Mechanism 2: Tensile membrane action in floor slabs

The floor slab is two-way spanning. The floor plan may be divided into a number of zones. For each
zone, use tensile membrane action to resist the applied floor loads. The interior secondary beams are
allowed to fail in fire and do not require external fire protection.
Work to be done: A B C D E F

1. Calculate 4
temperatures
in the slab at
the fire
3
resistance
time, using the 21m
1-D numerical
heat transfer
scheme 2
presented in
the heat
transfer notes.
1
Use the
average slab 45m
thickness
(100mm). Ignore reinforcement in heat transfer analysis and assume the reinforcement temperature
is the same as that of concrete at the same location. The standard fire temperature – time
relationship is: Tf=345 log10(8t+1)+Ta, where Tf is fire temperature in oC, Ta ambient temperature
in oC (may be taken as 20oC), t time in minutes. The fire resistance period is 90 minutes. [25%]
2. Assume mechanism 1: Check whether the one-way spanning slab has sufficient fire resistance.
Ignore hogging bending moment resistance of the slab. Use material strength – temperature
relationships in EN 1992-1-2 for reinforcement and concrete. Ignore contribution from the steel
decking. [10%]
3. Assume mechanism 1: For one interior secondary beam, and one interior column on the ground
floor, calculate their limiting temperatures. Determine the required fire protection thicknesses for
them, based on calculating steel temperatures. [25%]
4. Assume mechanism 2: Divide the floor plan into zones of 6mx9m and 9mx9m along the gridlines.
Assume the internal secondary beams within these zones are unprotected. The beams along the
gridlines are protected as in (3) above. For one internal 9mx9m zone, check whether the two-way
spanning slab has sufficient load carrying capacity in tensile membrane action to resist the applied
loads with the reinforcement given in design data. If not, propose increased reinforcement mesh
size. [30%]
5. Check whether the proposed protection in (3) for the interior secondary beams (which become
edge beams of the 9x9m panel in (4) under TMA) is adequate. If not, recalculate the necessary fire
protection thickness. [10%]

Work in groups of not more than 3. Weighting: 20% of the course.

When presenting computer calculation results, clearly state your assumptions, the calculation
procedure (including equations) and input data. Present key outputs only. Please do not present
pages and pages of output numbers from your calculation printout. Submission page limit: no more
than 20 A4 sheets, including sketches.

Submission deadline: submit one copy only for your group report to yong.wang@manchester.ac.uk
by 9am on Monday 8 May 2023 (start of week 12). Use your surnames for the submission file
name. Do not use generic names such as Fire Engineering Coursework. Please write down clearly
the names of all members of the group on the front cover of the report.