Post-earthquake fire performance of reinforced concrete columns

Abstract

Post-earthquake fire (PEF) is a relatively frequent disaster, but its damage on reinforcement concrete (RC) members is complicated and usually affected by uncertain factors. Earthquake damage leads to the decreasing of the stress and deformation properties of structures before the fire disaster begins. Even though it is difficult to figure out the exact damage principal of the PEF structures, there are several efforts focused on it. The main innovation of this paper relates to the extent of the earthquake damage on the fire resistance of the PEF RC columns, for which there has been little study in the past. The earthquake damage of an RC structure under a shaking table test is presented first, and the simulation models of the PEF RC columns are established. Then, the temperature field analysis of the PEF RC columns exposed in ISO 834 fire curve is carried out, from which the temperature contours and curves with the different spalling forms are employed. Finally, the prediction equations of the compressive bearing capacity reduction factor of the PEF RC columns are proposed.

Keywords:

• Post-earthquake fire (PEF)
• shaking table test
• spalling of concrete
• temperature field
• compressive bearing capacity reduction factor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.