Performance-based fire design of concrete structures
Résumé
Fire is a major hazard for structures and must be considered as a possible loading case in the design. Recently, performance-based design approaches have been increasingly adopted, for the flexibility and opportunities they provide. A performance-based strategy relies on the explicit definition of design objectives and the demonstration that these objectives are fulfilled by the design. The performance-based strategy offers the double advantage of explicitly evaluating the performance and providing freedom to the designer. However, freedom comes at a cost, and implementation of a performance-based design is more demanding for the designer than following prescriptive rules. The purpose of this bulletin is to provide guidelines on the use of performance-based methods for designing and assessing concrete structures in fire.
This document is structured to provide a practical guidance to designers and users interested in applying a performance-based strategy for fire design. The scope and objectives are detailed in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 describes the effects of fire on the thermal and structural response of concrete structures. Chapters 4 and 5 address the design strategy and quantification of the performance of concrete structures in fire, with Chapter 5 describing a step-by-step approach to explicitly assess the fire performance. Finally, an Appendix provides detailed information on two essential engineering methods in performance-based design, namely advanced calculation methods and probabilistic methods.