Fire performance assessment of HPLWC hollow core slabs through full-scale furnace testing

• Fire behavior of HPLWC hollow core slabs is investigated.
• Full-scale furnace tests are carried out to assess load bearing capacity under fire.
• The fire resistance is reduced by the onset of spalling.
• Spalling is avoided with the exposition of the slabs to a dry environment.

High-Performance Light-Weight Concrete (HPLWC) is used for many structural applications when superior strength and low self-weight of the structural components are required. Among these applications there are thin floor structures, like hollow core slabs, that require characteristics of lightness, relatively high resistance and superior durability. Although the fire performance of normal strength concrete hollow core slabs has been extensively studied, the behavior of HPLWC hollow core slabs has not been suitably investigated.The paper reports the results of two full-scale furnace tests on HPLWC hollow core slabs. Each of them involved one panel with an applied load and one without load. The evolution of temperature inside the slabs was measured along with the load bearing capacity under fire conditions. During the first test severe spalling occurred in the loaded slab while during the second one, performed on slabs cured for some months under dry conditions, spalling did not occur. Finite elements simulations were also carried out in order to support the interpretation of the experimental results. Experimental and numerical investigations gave insight into the fire performance of HPLWC hollow core slabs and highlighted the influence of dry curing conditions in reducing the spalling and increasing the fire resistance.