Investigating the fire performance of LSF wall systems using finite element analyses
Journal of Structural Fire Engineering
ISSN: 2040-2317
Article publication date: 14 July 2017
Issue publication date: 22 September 2017
Abstract
Purpose
This research was aimed at investigating the fire performance of LSF wall systems by using 3-D heat transfer FE models of existing LSF wall system configurations.
Design/methodology/approach
This research was focused on investigating the fire performance of LSF wall systems by using 3-D heat transfer finite element models of existing LSF wall system configurations. The analysis results were validated by using the available fire test results of five different LSF wall configurations.
Findings
The validated finite element models were used to conduct a parametric study on a range of non-load bearing and load bearing LSF wall configurations to predict their fire resistance levels (FRLs) for varying load ratios.
Originality/value
Fire performance of LSF wall systems with different configurations can be understood by performing full-scale fire tests. However, these full-scale fire tests are time consuming, labour intensive and expensive. On the other hand, finite element analysis (FEA) provides a simple method of investigating the fire performance of LSF wall systems to understand their thermal-mechanical behaviour. Recent numerical research studies have focused on investigating the fire performances of LSF wall systems by using finite element (FE) models. Most of these FE models were developed based on 2-D FE platform capable of performing either heat transfer or structural analysis separately. Therefore, this paper presents the details of a 3-D FEA methodology to develop the capabilities to perform fully-coupled thermal-mechanical analyses of LSF walls exposed to fire in future.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for providing the necessary research facilities, and Australian Research Council (ARC) and QUT for providing the financial support to conduct this research project.
Citation
Rusthi, M., Keerthan, P., Mahendran, M. and Ariyanayagam, A. (2017), "Investigating the fire performance of LSF wall systems using finite element analyses", Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 354-376. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSFE-04-2016-0002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited