FIRE BEHAVIOR OF STEEL-CONCRETE COMPOSITE FLOORS:

PARAMETERS THAT INFLUENCE THE FIRE RESISTANCE

SUMMARY

Composite concrete floors are common in buildings structured in steel. The

typical module is formed by four columns, four edge beams supported on the
columns, one to five secondary beams supported on the edge beams and a
cast in situ concrete slab supported by a steel deck.

The design of composite floors at ambient temperature follows a relatively

simple routine given by technical standards like the NBR 6118, ACI 318 and BS
5950. In fire situation the composite floors have to accomplish fire resistance
criteria applied to the building structure. Concerning to stability in fire a
resistance time is required by fire brigades´ technical instructions like IT-08/11
or standards like NBR 14423:2001 or BS 9999.

Thus, in the general case a composite floor is fully designed at ambient

temperature and only verified against stability criteria in fire conditions. One
common strategy of passive fire protection of composite floors modules consists
of protection of columns and edge beams disregarding the protection of
secondary beams. If it is concluded that the composite floor will experiment an
unacceptable deformation during the required fire resistance time, passive
protection must be applied to the secondary beams too. This solution can
significantly raise the total fire safety cost of the structure.

To avoid passive fire protection of secondary beams engineers have three

parameters to manage looking for adequate fire resistance of composite floors.
They are: the area of mesh reinforcement, and the characteristic strength of
concrete, . This work describes an investigation on the influence of these
parameters on the fire resistance of the composite floors. It is justifiable to
imagine that increasing and or increasing compressive strength of concrete
will result in reduction of the maximum deformation of the floor, which may
lead it to fulfilling the criterion of stability in fire.

METHODOLOGY

Finite element analyses in fire situation of a real floor are used to investigate the
influence of the mentioned parameters on its fire resistance. Non linear physical
and geometrical analysis of a structural modulus is implemented on VULCAN, a
commercial program for structural fire engineering analyses. VULCAN is used
to calculate the maximum vertical deflection on the central node of a composite
floor exposed to the ISO 834 fire during 90 minutes. The influence of each
parameter is measured through its effect over the size of vertical deflection.
STRUCTURAL MODULUS ANALYZED

The structural modulus analyzed is 9.60m wide by 8.5m deep. The profiles used
are shown in Figure 1. The four secondary beams are spaced 1.92m apart. The
structural steel has fy = 345 MPa. The floor slab has 140mm height and uses a
0.8mm thick steel deck form. Concrete strength will vary from 20MPa to 40MPa.
Reinforcement bars will be Q92, Q159 and Q196 meshes manufactured in
Gerdau CA-60B steel. 3.33 connectors per meter with a diameter equal to
19mm and fu = 350 MPa are used, adopting the hypothesis of partial interaction.

Figure 1 - The structural modulus analyzed.

The total permanent load on the floor is 2.95 kN/m 2. The accidental load is
taken equal to 6 kN/m2. The load combinations of item 6.2.1 of NBR 14323:
2013 result in uniform loads on the floor equal to 4.15 kN/m 2, 5.35 kN/m2 and
6.55 kN/m2 corresponding respectively to the first, second and third hypotheses.
As the columns and edge beams are supposed to be protected to reach a
temperature of 550°C at the end of the required time of fire resistance, the
reactions of the neighboring panels on these beams do not apply. In fact, its
contribution to the deformation of the floor would be very small, if not negligible.
The collapse of this structural modulus is characterized by the maximum
deflection of 8500mm /20 = 425mm in the central node of the panel.
RESULTS

The FEM model of the structural modulus considered concrete strength of 20

MPa, 25 MPa, 30 MPa, 35 MPa and 40 MPa. These models used reinforcement
Gerdau meshes Q92 corresponding to 0.92 cm 2/m in each direction, Q159
corresponding to 1.59 cm2/m in each direction and Q196 corresponding to 1.96
cm2/m in each direction.

Deflections of the central node of the panel at the end of the required fire
resistance time of 90 minutes for the first, second and third load cases of item
6.2.1 of NBR 14323:2013 are presented in Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3,
respectively.

Table 1 - Central node deflections for first load hypothesis.

Concrete Central node deflection (mm)

strength Reinforcement Mesh
fck Q92 Q159 Q196
20 190 158 151
25 194 147 144
30 172 151 137
35 191 162 155
40 190 173 137

Table 2 - Central node deflections for second load hypothesis.

Concrete Central node deflection (mm)

strength Reinforcement Mesh
fck Q92 Q159 Q196
20 283 251 234
25 279 244 216
30 265 248 224
35 264 245 228
40 284 247 224

Table 2 - Central node deflections for third load hypothesis.

Concrete Central node deflection (mm)

strength Reinforcement Mesh
fck Q92 Q159 Q196
20 369 324 293
25 342 324 289
30 353 311 295
35 332 311 300
40 325 305 297