The National Fire Research Lab: Advances in Structural Fire Engineering [N4-1]

As industry moves towards performance-based design, large-scale tests are required to fully understand the complex behavior of steel structures subjected to structurally significant fires. The recently commissioned National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) has the unique capabilities of testing full-scale large structures subjected to real fires. This session will introduce the audience to the NFRL facility, with emphasis on a recent experimental study of a series of 42 ft span composite beams under combined gravity and fire loading scenarios. Presentation includes:

• overview of laboratory's capabilities
• advances in metrology
• temperature-dependent material models for structural-steel and high-strength bolts
• experimental results from the composite beam tests and related thermal-structural analyses

Intended Audience: Engineers, Detailers
Track: Design & Analysis

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