Behaviour and design of restrained steel column in fire, Part 1: Fire test

This is the first of the three companion papers dealing with the restrained steel column behaviours in fire. This paper reports the results of two new fire tests on axially and rotationally restrained steel columns that have different axial restraint stiffness. Axial and rotational restraints were applied by a restraint beam. The external applied axial load was kept constant during the fire test. The increase and decrease in axial force in the restrained steel column was borne by the restraint beam. Test results included the temperature, the axial displacement and the lateral deflection of the test column. It was found that the axial restraint reduced the buckling temperature of a restrained column. The effects of axial restraint to the failure temperature depended on the load ratio and the axial restraint stiffness ratio. A Finite Element Method (FEM) model was built to simulate the fire test. The damping factor fitting for simulating behaviours of restrained steel column in fire was selected through parametric analysis. The validated FEM model was used to perform parametric studies on the behaviour of restrained steel column in Part 2, results of which were used to develop a practical design method for restrained steel column in fire in Part 3.