Abstract:
Fire is one of the most hazardous, unintentionally events in buildings. Struc tural engineers deal with fire resistance that might be one of the most important part of structural engineering in case of fire. Estimation of structural temperatures using heat transfer fundamentals is generally neglected by structural engineers. However, the temperature results of steel sections are as important as their mechanical properties and play an important role in thermo-mechanical analyses. Therefore, it is crucial to correctly calculate the temperatures sections of the structural elements. This study aims for a more accurate estimation of average section temperature and thermal gradi ent in steel column I-sections by considering the heat exchange between flanges and web in the section enclosure. This is generally not taking into account in numerical heat transfer analyses. The thermal behaviour of I sections, which are generally used for perimeter columns, are exposed to two hour ISO 834 standard time-temperature curve in a fire furnace and temperatures at different cross section locations are collected. These results are then validated by finite element analyses.
