Thermal Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structural Elements

Abstract

The paper presents a comparative study of thermal properties of reinforced concrete structural elements. A total of 2 beams and 2 columns were selected from literature [1-3]. Thermal profiles of these elements were predicted using different thermal properties and were compared with the experimental results. The thermal analysis is carried out numerically using finite element analysis package, ABAQUS [4]. Comparisons of different analyses results have been made with the main focus laid on the effect of the boundary conditions i.e. prescribed temperature boundary condition, convection and radiation. During the heating phase, there was slight difference in the temperatures predicted using the two boundary conditions, whereas during cooling phase, there was a significant difference: the convective and radiation boundary condition yielded better results. A reduction in discrepancy between the simulated and experimental result was observed on using thermal properties as per the formulation in Eurocode2 which took into account the moisture content.

Citation

Lakhani, H., Kamath, P., Bhargava, P., Sharma, U. and Reddy, G. (2013), "Thermal Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structural Elements", Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 227-244. https://doi.org/10.1260/2040-2317.4.4.227