Fire Resistant Design of Buildings

Abstract

Civil and structural engineers are often not familiar with fire safety issues, because these are not addressed in the traditional civil/structural engineering university programs, and fire protection design is not within the traditional scope of structural scope of the structural consultant in a building project. Structural design codes do not contain any requirements with regard to the ability of structures to withstand severe heat exposure, and usual scope of structural consultant in a building project is to design the structure for the expected climate temperature range. However in recent years many engineers are now involved in designing building for fire situations. After the tragic world trade center and Pentagon events on September 11, 2001, building owners and professional pay attentions towards the design of building for fire load calculation, time-temperature relationship, material properties and the prescriptive way of designing the elements of concrete structures for fire resistant. Also performance based analysis of structures considering more real fire curve by zone models, thermal analysis by finite element model by computer package and then calculation of structural response is done.