A Numerical Study on the Thermo-mechanical Response of a Composite Beam Exposed to Fire

This study presents an analytical framework for estimating the thermo-mechanical behavior of a composite beam exposed to fire. The framework involves: a fire simulation from which the evolution of temperature on the structure surface is obtained; data transfer by an interface model, whereby the surface temperature is assigned to the finite element model of the structure for thermo-mechanical analysis; and nonlinear thermo-mechanical analysis for predicting the structural response under high temperatures. We use a plastic-damage model for calculating the response of concrete slabs, and propose a method to determine the stiffness degradation parameter of the plastic-damage model by a nonlinear regression of concrete cylinder test data. To validate simulation results, structural fire experiments have been performed on a real-scale steel–concrete composite beam using the fire load prescribed by ASTM E119 standard fire curve. The calculated evolution of deflection at the center of the beam shows good agreement with experimental results. The local test results as well as the effective plastic strain distribution and section rotation of the composite beam at elevated temperatures are also investigated.