RESEARCH ARTICLE
Closed-Form Prediction of the Thermal and Structural Response of a Perimeter Column in a Fire
Spencer E. Quiel1, *, Maria E.M. Garlock2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2010Volume: 4
First Page: 64
Last Page: 78
Publisher ID: TOBCTJ-4-64
DOI: 10.2174/1874836801004010064
Article History:
Received Date: 25/06/2009Revision Received Date: 10/10/2009
Acceptance Date: 12/10/2009
Electronic publication date: 29/4/2010
Collection year: 2010
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
This paper proposes a simplified closed-form methodology with which to predict the thermal and structural response of steel perimeter columns in high-rise building frames exposed to fire. Due to their orientation in the building compartment, perimeter columns are heated on three sides and will develop a thermal gradient through their crosssectional depth. Restraint of the thermal expansion associated with this gradient will cause these members to experience a combination of axial load (P) and bending moment (M), thus acting as beam-columns. At high temperatures, the thrudepth gradient will alter the plastic capacity and mechanical behavior of the perimeter column, leading to plastic P-M behavior that is not captured under the assumption of uniform cross-sectional temperature. Simplified methodologies are proposed to calculate the following: (1) the thru-depth temperature distribution that develops due to three-sided heating, (2) the gradient-induced changes in plastic capacity, and (3) the gradient-induced changes in demand (i.e. P and M). These methodologies are sufficiently simple for use in code-based design and can be implemented via a spreadsheet because they are closed-form. The individual results of each simple methodology as well as their combination are validated against the results of computational thermal and structural analysis, showing good agreement.
