Travelling Fires

for Structural Design

Dr Guillermo Rein
Department of
Mechanical Engineering

Sponsors:
CERIB

Across Disciplines
Fire &
Structures

Fire

Structures

The interface between fire and structures is the

intersection of the two sets

Lame Substitution of the 1st kind

Fire &
Structures

Fire

Failure of
structure
at T = XC

When structural engineers are entirely

replaced by pseudo-science.
It still survives in many standards.

Lame Substitution of the 2nd kind

Fire &
Structures

Structures

When fire engineers are entirely replaced by pseudo-science.

It is mainstream.

Lame Substitution of the 3rd kind

Fire &
Structures
Failure of
structures at
T=XC

When both fire and structural engineers are simultaneously

replaced by pseudo-science.
Any similarity with reality is a mere coincidence.

Ancient Traditional Design Fires

Standard Fire, 1880

(on paper since 1912)
Swedish Curves, 1972
Eurocode Parametric
Curves, 1995

Imposed assumption:
Uniform burning and uniform
temperature, just like inside a
furnace.

Scale matters

Here be
Fire Tests

Blind
extrapolation

Over there be
Real Buildings

Blind extrapolation
from limited experience

Fire in Furnace
Fire in Normal
compartment
Fire in Large
compartment

Fire in Multistorey building

Blind
extrapolation

Limitations

For example, limitations according Eurocode:

Floor areas < 500 m2

Near rectangular enclosures

Heights < 4 m

No ceilings openings

Moderate thermal-inertia of lining

< 500 m2 floor?

Rectangular?
< 4 m high?

Excel, London

WTC Transit Hub

Insulating lining?

No ceiling opening?

Arup/Peter Cook/VIEW

The Shard

Renzo Piano

Arup Campus

Love the Architects: design is out of bounds

We surveyed 3,000
compartments, most of
the campus, in Kings
Buildings at the
University of Edinburgh.

Buildings from 1850-1990: 66% of volume within limitations

Buildings from 2000: 8% of volume within limitations (figure)
Modern architecture increasingly produces buildings
whose fire behaviour falls outside our field of knowledge

Jonsdottir et al, Out of range, Fire Risk Management 2009

The Titanic complied with all codes.

Lawyers can make any device legal, only
engineers can make them safe"
Prof VM Brannigan
University of Maryland

WHY?
Fires have been
observed to travel across
a floor plate burning
over a limited area
Non-uniform
temperature
distributions
Long fire durations (up
to 20 h Meridian Plaza)

World Trade Centre, New York (2001)

Windsor Tower, Madrid (2005)
Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft (2008)
Interstate Bank, Los Angeles (1988)
One Meridian Plaza, Philadelphia (1991)

Fire spread large floor

Amax

Amax

*
IGNITION

SPREAD

area of the fire increasing with time

TRAVEL

TRAVELLING FIRES METHODOLOGY

FIRE SCEARIOS

Travelling fires (TF)

- 2.5%, 10%, 25%, and 48%

Eurocode (EC) parametric

curves
- short-hot (SH) and long-cool (LC)

Heat Transfer, Tg-> Ts

STEEL

TFM

CONCRETE

Structural Results Rebar Temperature

500

Rebar Temperature (C)

2.5%
400

5%
10%
25%

300

50%
100%

200

100

0.1

Law et al, Engineering Structures 2011

Time (h)

10

100

Family of fires not just one fire cast in stone

Rebar Temperature

range of sizes <=> range of spread rates

LOCATION OF PEAK TEMPERATURE

COMPARISON TO TRADITIONAL METHODS

(steel + 60 min fire protection)

Conclusions

In large compartments, post-flashover

fire cannot occur, but a travelling fire
would develop.
1. TFM is a novel framework
complementing traditional methods
2. TFM can produce more onerous
conditions for the structure.
3. TFM triggers previously unnoticed
structural mechanisms.
4. Among the fastest knowledgetransfer case from research to industry
in FSE.
ARUP

4 Pancras Square

Battersea

Nova Victoria

View 58

The Scalpel

39 iconic
buildings
in UK

Two New Ludgate

S2 Kings Cross

Barlett, UCL

One New Ludgate

Kings House

Sponsors:
CERIB