CE 615: Structural Design for Fire - Spring 2023

• To understand implications of fire on structural systems
• To understand design of RCC and steel structures under fire
• To understand fire rating and design for fire safety

• Review of performance-based design concepts, LRFD cold design of RCC and steel structures.
• Fire models and scenarios, load calculations.
• Design considerations for individual members (tensile, compressive and flexural) in fire.
• Fire proofing materials, fire safety ratings.
• Behavior of structural systems under fire, preventive/protective mechanisms.
• Exhaustive syllabus is as follows
  • Review of performance-based design concepts, LRFD cold design of RCC and steel structures; codified models for fire, standard and natural fire; material behavior of steel and concrete constituents in fire; estimation of time-temperature curves for structural members in different fire and exposure/ventilation scenarios; design considerations for individual members exposed to fire: structural members in tension, compression, bending; provisions in Eurocodes and IS 456, 800, 1641, 1642 and 1643 to ensure fire safety; fire proofing materials used to enhance fire resistance of structural members; behavior of structural systems under fire; preventive/protective systems for structures.

• Fire-Resistant Design of Structures - S. Chandrasekaran and G. Srivastava
• Structural Design for Fire - A.H. Buchanan.
• Fire Safety Engineering: Design of Structures - J.A. Purkiss.
• Performance-based Fire Engineering of Structures - Y. Wang, I. Burgess, F. Wald and M. Gillie.

• IS 456:2000 - Plain and reinforced concrete: code of practice.
• IS 800:2007 - General construction in steel: code of practice.
• IS 1641:1988 - Code of practice for fire safety of buildings (general): general principles of fire grading and classification.
• IS 1642:1989 - Fire safety of buildings (general): details of construction: code of practice.
• IS 1643:1988 - Code of practice for fire safety of buildings (general): exposure hazard.
• Eurocode 1: Part 1-2: Actions on structures exposed to fire.
• Eurocode 2: Part 1-2: Design of concrete structures - structural fire design.
• Eurocode 3: Part 1-1: Design of steel structures.

• Knowledge of performance-based design of RCC and steel structures.
• Working knowledge of MS Excel and Matlab.

• Please be considerate about everyone's time.
• In all emails pertaining to this course, please have "CE615" in the subject line.
  • (note that there is no space or hyphen or anything between CE and 615)

Cheating cases (assignments/codes/exams/project) will be dealt with in accordance with the Institute norms. It is expected that everyone will uphold the honor code.

All delays beyond the defined deadlines will attract reduction in marks as per the following curve. The reduction factor, \(R\) will be multiplied to the obtained marks. Mathematically, it is given by: \(R = \exp(-D^2)\), where \(D\) is the total delay in days (will be counted hourly, i.e. fractional days are possible).

Following will be the weightage of different components of assessment

• Assignments will entail analysis/design problems, practical problems, visit reports, etc.
• Exams will involve take home type analysis/design problems along with viva/presentations.

It is important to develop the habit of self-learning. A number of reading assignments and self-exercises will be given during the course. These will not be formally graded and it will be expected that students will go through them on a regular basis on their own.

• Introduction to structural fire engineering
• Need and Objectives of design of structures against fire

• Assessment of fire loads within buildings (research paper given for reading)
• Assignment 1 (due on 16 Jan)
  • Conduct a survey of your hostel room in accordance with the methods mentioned in the paper; compare your results with the available data

• Lecture by Dr Mahesh Tiwari on fire engineering

• Calculation of FLED and development of parametric T-t curve as per Eurocode (sample calculation was given)
• Assignment 2 (due on 23 Jan)
  • Calculate FLED of your hostel room (that you surveyed last week)
  • Calculate FLED of AB 7/204 (classroom)

• Total energy content and FLED
• Flowchart of design for fire
  • Characterization of fire loads
  • Development of fire scenarios (HRR-time and T-time)
  • Thermo-mechanical analysis of structural systems/members
  • Design
• Concept of fire rating: strength, insulation, integrity, (smoke)
• To read: IS 3809
• To think: differences between standard fire curve (ISO 834, ASTM E119) and real fire behavior

• Stages of fire development
• HRR-time and Temperature-time behavior

• Equivalent fire severity of real vs. standard fire curves

• Heat transfer by conduction, convection and radiation
• Electrical circuit analogy

• Discussions on radiation (inverse square and Lambert's cosine laws)
• Examples on temperature calculations

• Design philosophy and loads during a fire
• Design of steel tension and bending members
• Assignment 3 given – due on 25 Feb

• Brief review, design of RC beams and columns subjected to fire

• Design of RC beams and columns subjected to fire

• Design of RC beams and columns subjected to fire