DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

KLES’ DR. M S. SHESHGIRI COLLEGE OF

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
BELGAVI-590008

BHARAT C. HALAGALIMATH PROF.KIRAN.KORADDI

M.TECH(STRUCTURAL ENGG) CIVIL ENGG DEPT
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON FIRE
BEHAVIOUR OF STEEL MEMBERS
PENETRATING CONCRETE WALLS
CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION
 TEST-SETUP
 CASTING OF TEST SETUP
 PROCEDURE
 TEST RESULTS
 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
 There are many situations where concrete fire walls are used to
divide a building into separate fire compartments.
 The purpose of providing such walls is to prevent the spread of

fire from one to another compartment.

 The ability to prevent the fire spread is not only dependent on

the fire wall but also the penetrating members which have
ability to conduct heat.
 Since steel is a good conductor its assumed that fire may spread

due to excessive rise in temperature in the steel member

 Such practices are generally being discouraged with steel

members being stopped and supported on either side of wall.

TEST SET-UP
 The tests were conducted in a standard fire test furnace which
internally measures 2.1 m width  1.8 m depth  2.1 m height
shows an overall view of the furnace with two test specimens
mounted in the side walls of the furnace.
LAYOUT OF TEST SETUP

CASTING TEST SPECIMEN
 A total of eight specimens were tested in a series of four tests,
 Each test having two specimens, with one specimen placed in
one wall of the furnace and the other in the opposite wall.
 Each test specimen contained two steel plates, one with
dimensions of 2 mm thick x 100 mm wide x 1200 mm long and
the other having dimensions of 20 mm thick x 100 mm wide x
1200 mm long.
 Four specimens were cast in the horizontal position (i.e. with the
steel plate vertical) .
 The concrete blocks for the other four specimens were cast with
holes to allow grouting of the steel plates once they were
located.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEST SPECIMEN
VOIDS GROUTED HORIZONTALY AND VERTICALLY

DETAILS OF TEST SPECIMEN
PROCEDURE
 The test is conducted by heating the specimen at different
time.
 PVC cables and cardboard are used to investigate if ignition
would occur.
 The specimen simulate the concrete wall and the steel plate
simulate web or flange of Rolled section.
 The temperature in the furnace is raised to elevated
temperature and the behavior of steel plates and the time-
temperature graph is plotted.
TEST RESULTS
 Plotted below are steel temperatures on each side of the wall
whose thickness is 200mm. The plot corresponds for
60mins,120mins and 180mins.
 The maximum temperature rise at 25mm away from the
unexposed face;

EXPOSURE DURATION TEMPERATURE

20MM PLATE
180 MINS 185°C
120MINS 140°C
60MINS 80°C
2MM PLATE
180MINS 85°C
120MINS 65°C
60MINS 45°C
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
 The test results show a dramatic difference in steel
temperature from fire to non-fire side. This reduction is due to
the mechanism show below;
 It is considered that the test results are directly applicable to
the roof situation being addressed.
 In all the tests the maximum recorded temperature at the
unexposed side of the steel plate was less than 185
Celsius(after exposing for 180mins).
 Also the test showed regardless the specimen casted
horizontally or vertically the max. temperature reached was
similar.
 On non-exposed side of wall the steel members will only be
affected locally by elevated temperature.
 Furthermore the temperature are such that the stiffness of the
member will be hardly affected.
 The temperature in the furnace was not sufficient enough to
cause ignition.
 This is because the temperature required for ignition are
considerably higher than the insulation failure criteria as
given in AS1530.4.
 Therefore we can conclude that the spread of fire will not
occur.
CONCLUSIONS
 The test results presented here illustrate the dramatic reduction
in temperature from the fire to non-fire sides of steel members.
 The resulting temperatures of the non-fire side of the member
are sufficiently low that fire spread will not occur.
 In the cases where the steel members has been designed to
resist lateral forces required to restrain the top of the wall,
lateral restraint to the wall will be maintained provided its
strength exceeds the applied forces by more than 15%.
 If any additional loads imposed on top of wall by deforming
roof members are taken into account then its not necessary for
roof members to be fire protected.
REFERENCES
 Bennetts I.D., Culton, M., and Goh, C.C., Behaviour of Steel
Members When Penetrating Fire Walls, CESARE, VUT Report
No. VUT/CESARE/BHP/2000/002, March 2000.
 Standards Australia, AS 1530.4, Methods for Fire Tests on
Building Materials, Components and Structures, Part 4: Fire-
resistance Tests of Elements of Building Construction, 1997.
 Poh, K. W., Modelling Elevated Temperature Properties of
Structural Steel, BHP Research Report No. BHPR/SM/R/055,
September 1996
 Schwatz, K. J., and Lie, T. T., Investigating the Unexposed
Surface Temperature Criteria of Standard ASTM E119, Fire
Technology, 21, February 1985, pp. 169-180