The effect of induced restraint on the fire response of reinforced concrete (RC) columns is addressed in this work. A finite element model, capable of analysing the behaviour of restrained RC columns from pre-fire stages to collapse in fire is…
The effect of induced restraint on the fire response of reinforced concrete (RC) columns is addressed in this work. A finite element model, capable of analysing the behaviour of restrained RC columns from pre-fire stages to collapse in fire is developed for the analysis of RC structure elements subjected to natural or parametric fire conditions. The advantage of the procedure is its ability to consider realistic constitutive relations for concrete and steel including wide range phenomena such as transient creep, plasticity, cracking, and degradation of material properties, all within the framework of large displacements and small strains theory. The model is used to investigate the effect of the degree of axial restraint, fire scenario, failure criteria, compressive load level, slenderness and eccentricity on the fire response of restrained RC columns. Through the results of the parametric study, it is shown that the fire parameters significantly influence the fire resistance of RC columns. It’s also shown that the conventional method based on standard fire exposure may not be conservative if the resulting fire has a decay phase similar to the severe fire scenario used in this study.