Charring model for timber frame floor assemblies with void cavities

Design models of timber structures in fire usually take into account the loss in cross section due to charring of wood and the temperature-dependent reduction of strength and stiffness of the uncharred residual cross section. For timber frame wall and floor assemblies with void cavities, only a little information is available. In the first part of the paper, the results of an extensive FE-thermal analysis on initially protected timber beams exposed to fire on three sides, after the fire protection has fallen off (post-protection phase), are presented. The FE-thermal analysis verified by fire tests on protected timber specimens exposed to one-dimensional charring permitted the analysis of the main parameters, which influence charring during the post-protection phase. Based on the FE-results, a charring model for timber frame floor assemblies with void cavities has been developed and is presented in the second part of the paper. The charring model takes into account the influence of high temperature during the post-protection phase as well as the heat flux superposition on the charring rate of the timber beams exposed to fire on three sides.