Tests of Load-Bearing Slender Reinforced Concrete Walls in Fire

Eighteen large-scale slender reinforced concrete walls were tested under standard fire conditions. The test conditions included different height-to-thickness ratios, reinforcement covers, concrete strengths and mixture proportions, and varying levels of eccentric inplane load. Eight walls, simply supported along two short edges, were tested under combined eccentric inplane and lateral loads to investigate inplane load capacity. Another eight walls, also simply supported along two short edges, were tested under lateral load only to investigate spalling of concrete and thermal bowing. Two walls, simply supported on three edges (two short and one long), were tested under lateral load to investigate spalling in concrete walls without flexural cracking. The results also show that centrally reinforced walls perform better than doubly reinforced walls, and that concrete strength has little influence on the performance of load-bearing slender walls in fire. Furthermore, the results show that flexural cracking on the fire- exposed surface reduces the tendency for spalling of concrete.