Testing of Full-scale RC Frame under Simulated Fire Following Earthquake

Abstract

In present study, a full-scale testing of reinforced concrete (RC) frame sub-assemblage has been investigated under fire subsequent to simulated seismic loading. First part of the sequential loading consisted of a quasi-static cyclic lateral loading corresponds to life safety level of structural performance on the test frame. In the second part of the test, a compartment fire was ignited to the pre-damaged test frame for one hour duration simulating fire following earthquake (FFE) scenario. The results showed that the first cracking was observed at the end joints of the roof beams after the frame experienced a 30 mm cyclic lateral displacement. One hour heating and eleven hour cooling was tracked and temperatures were recorded. A knocking sound was heard from the fire compartment after 5 minutes of the fire ignition. An excessive degradation of the concrete material at a number of locations of the frame sub-assemblage was observed during visual inspection after the fire test. The Nondestructive tests (NDT) were also conducted to ascertain the damage in the RC frame at the various stages of loading. The test results developed an understanding of the behaviour of RC frame sub-assemblage in FFE.

Citation

Sharma, U., Kumar, V., Kamath, P., Singh, B., Bhargava, P., Singh, Y., Usmani, A., Torero, J., Gillie, M. and Pankaj, P. (2014), "Testing of Full-scale RC Frame under Simulated Fire Following Earthquake", Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1260/2040-2317.5.3.215