Elsevier

Thin-Walled Structures

Volume 159, February 2021, 107262
Thin-Walled Structures

Finite element modeling for the progressive collapse analysis of steel stiffened-plate structures in fires

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2020.107262Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Computational models for the fire-induced progressive analysis of steel stiffened-plate structures.

  • Computational models for the heat transfer analysis.

  • Computational models for the thermal elastic-plastic large-deformation analysis.

  • Effect of passive fire protection (PFP) on fire collapse.

  • Validation of the computational models by a comparison with the experiments on full-sale steel stiffened-plate structures without or with PFP.

Abstract

This paper is a sequel to the authors’ articles which provided the test data on the progressive collapse of full-scale steel stiffened-plate structures without and with passive fire protection (PFP) under lateral patch loading in fires [1,2]. This paper presents new computational models for the analyses of heat transfer and fire-induced progressive collapse behaviour of steel stiffened plate structures without or with PFP. For this purpose, transient thermal elastic-plastic large-deformation finite element models were formulated. The developed computational models were validated by a comparison with the test data. The novelty of the paper is associated with a new procedure for the fire-induced progressive collapse analysis of steel stiffened-plate structures which is critical for a contribution to fire safety engineering of steel plated structures.

Introduction

Steel stiffened-plate panels are used in naval, offshore, mechanical and civil engineering structures as primary strength structures. They are rarely subjected to fire accidents, which may result in structural collapse leading to casualty or severe damages to asset and the environment.

Fire safety engineering is a key design consideration for structures on land and at sea [3,4]. In ships and offshore structures, hydrocarbon fires usually stem from oil and gas leaks with ignition [[4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12]]. The authors contributed to the fire-induced progressive collapse testing of full-scale steel stiffened-plate structures under lateral patch loading [1,2]. Many useful studies are found in the literature in association with the fire-induced progressive collapse analysis of land-based structures which are rather portal frames than plated structures [[13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30]]. Lou et al. [13] performed fire tests on full-scale steel portal frames associated with progressive collapse. Passive fire protection (PFP) is recognised as an effective option to protect structures in fires [4,[31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40],48,49]. Fire safety engineering requires quantification of how much PFP contributes to delaying the structural collapse so that a greater period of time can be attained in the process of escape and evacuation.

In the earlier articles [1,2], the authors obtained the test data on the progressive collapse of full-scale steel stiffened plate structures without or with PFP under lateral patch loading in fires. The present paper is a sequel to these earlier articles. In this paper, computational models were developed using transient thermal elastic-plastic large-deformation finite element method. The computational model to analyse heat transfer from ambient temperature to steel temperature was developed for steel plated structures without or with PFP. The computational model for the analysis of the fire-induced progressive collapse behaviour without or with PFP was formulated at the elevated temperature. The computational models were validated by a comparison with the test data.

Section snippets

Computational models

The procedure for the quantitative fire risk assessment and management of structures and infrastructures [4] requires the fire-induced progressive collapse analysis [41] for identifying the fire consequences. Key tasks to analyse the fire-induced progressive collapse behaviour are: heat transfer analysis to define temperature in steel transferred from ambient temperature elevated due to fire, and thermal elastic-plastic large-deformation analysis to identify the progressive collapse behaviour.

Application of the computational models to the tested structures

The computational models presented in section 2 were applied to the fire-induced progressive collapse testing on full-scale steel stiffened plate structures without or with PFP under lateral patch loading. In the testing, the horizontal type fire test furnace in the ICASS/KOSORI in Hadong, South Korea (www.icass.certer) was used, as shown in Fig. 7(a). Gas burners were used to increase the temperature inside the furnace. The loading actuators were used to apply external forces during fire

Computational results and discussion

Fig. 15 compares the temperature history of the tested structure without PFP, obtained from the test [1] and predicated using the LS-DYNA heat transfer analysis. The temperature of the structure calculated through heat transfer analysis is very well matched with the temperature measured in the test. After 2720 s the heat system was shut down in the test, but in the computational model, the temperature of the structure was continued to observe without reducing the heat loads. The temperature of

Concluding remarks

The objective of the present study was to establish a procedure for the nonlinear computations of the fire-induced progressive collapse behavior for steel stiffened-plate structures without or with passive fire protection (PFP). Nonlinear finite element method computational modelling techniques for both the heat transfer analysis and the thermal elastic-plastic large-deformation analysis were developed, and they were validated with a comparison with the experimental data which was obtained from

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The present study was conducted at the Korea Ship and Offshore Research Institute (International Centre for Advanced Safety Studies) at Pusan National University in South Korea which has been a Lloyd's Register Foundation Research Centre of Excellence since 2008.

References (58)

  • M. Moradi et al.

    Probabilistic assessment of failure time in steel frame subjected to fire load under progressive collapse scenario

    Eng. Fail. Anal.

    (2019)
  • K. Roy et al.

    Collapse behaviour of a fire engineering designed single-storey cold-framed steel building in severe fires

    Thin-Walled Struct.

    (2019)
  • J. Jiang et al.

    Quantitative evaluation of progressive collapse process of steel portal frames in fire

    J. Constr. Steel Res.

    (2018)
  • T. Gernay et al.

    Progressive collapse triggered by fire induced column loss: detrimental effect of thermal forces

    Eng. Struct.

    (2018)
  • J. Jiang et al.

    Disproportionate collapse of 3D steel-framed structures exposed to various compartmental fires

    J. Constr. Steel Res.

    (2017)
  • B. Jiang et al.

    Simulations on progressive collapse resistance of steel moment frames under localized fire

    J. Constr. Steel Res.

    (2017)
  • N.K. Shetty et al.

    Fire safety assessment and optimal design of passive fire protection for offshore structures

    Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf.

    (1998)
  • G. Landucci et al.

    Design and testing of innovative materials for passive fire protection

    Fire Saf. J.

    (2009)
  • T.A. Roberts et al.

    Fire resistance of passive fire protection coatings after long-term weathering

    Process Saf. Environ. Protect.

    (2010)
  • A. Ahmad et al.

    A risk-based method for determining passive fire protection adequacy

    Fire Saf. J.

    (2013)
  • J.H. Kim et al.

    A study on methods for fire load application with passive fire protection effects

    Ocean Eng.

    (2013)
  • M. Friebe et al.

    A parametric study on the use of passive fire protection in FPSO topside module

    Int. J. Naval Arch. Ocean Eng.

    (2014)
  • K. Mroz et al.

    Material solutions for passive fire protection of buildings and structures and their performances testing

    Procedia Eng.

    (2016)
  • I. Bradley et al.

    A review of the applicability of the jet fire resistance test of passive fire protection materials to a range of release scenarios

    Process Saf. Environ. Protect.

    (2019)
  • G.F. Porcari et al.

    Fire induced progressive collapse of steel building structures: a review of the mechanisms

    Eng. Struct.

    (2015)
  • J.K. Paik et al.

    Full-scale fire testing to collapse of steel stiffened plate structures under lateral patch loading (Part 1) – without passive fire protection

    Ships Offshore Struct.

    (2020)
  • J.K. Paik et al.

    Full-scale fire testing to collapse of steel stiffened plate structures under lateral patch loading (Part 2) – with passive fire protection

    Ships Offshore Struct.

    (2020)
  • J.K. Paik

    Ultimate Limit State Analysis and Design of Plated Structures

    (2018)
  • J.K. Paik

    Advanced Structural Safety Studies with Extreme Conditions and Accidents

    (2020)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text