Hybrid fire testing for assessing performance of structures in fire—Application

This paper presents the results for application and implementation of the hybrid fire testing (HFT) approach, developed previously for performance assessment of the structure in fire. The HFT carried out by means of both computer simulation and experimentation using the National Research Council Canada's (NRC) testing facilities in Ottawa. The test specimen was a full-scale 6-storey building structure with a fire compartment scenario on the main floor of the building. Using the HFT, the column in the designated fire compartment was exposed to the fire in a column furnace and the rest of the building was simulated using a numerical modeling, simultaneously. The methodology of the HFT and its numerical verifications were developed and described in a previous paper. This paper includes application of the HFT and some of results for fire structural performance of the whole 6-storey building. It also includes results of a separate, benchmark, column specimen with identical specifications, tested in fire using the traditional prescriptive fire resistance test method. The HFT was carried out successfully. The results indicated that the hybrid fire testing method would provide more realistic fire endurance evaluation than the prescriptive method due to including the effects from the rest of the building on the column specimen during the test.

► A new hybrid fire test was implemented for test of a 6-storey building in fire.
► Hybrid Fire Testing (HFT) is based on coupling a furnace test and analysis.
► The results include load, deformation, and temperature response of the building.
► The interaction between analysis and test for the HFT was compared and validated.
► The HFT results were compared with that of the traditional singe element test method.