Experimental behaviour of composite slabs during the heating and cooling fire stages

Most theoretical and experimental research investigating the effect of fire on structures has previously concentrated only on the structural behaviour during the heating stages of the fire, partly due to the fact that internationally accepted standard fire tests only consider this stage of the fire. Evidence from real fires in real buildings has highlighted that the cooling phase of a fire is equally important and it is possible for structures to fail during this stage of the fire even though they have survived the heating stage up to a maximum fire temperature. This paper provides an insight into the behaviour of composite slabs under different fire scenarios considering both the heating and cooling phase of the fire. Extensive test data is presented which shows the redistribution of moments and strains in the deck and steel mesh, together with displacements during the full duration of the fire. The results show that the behaviour of composite slabs is dependent on the heating rate, the maximum temperature reached and the cooling rate. In terms of overall performance, displacements and the temperature on the non-fire side of the slab are important. For the tests presented in this paper it was shown that one fire scenario resulted in the maximum displacement but another fire scenario resulted in the maximum temperature on the unexposed face. In addition the maximum temperature of the unexposed side of the slab and the mesh reinforcement within the slab occurring during the cooling stages of the fire. This highlights the fact that the performance of structures must be checked in design under a range of possible fire scenarios, which must include both the heating and cooling stages of a fire.