An efficient fiber element approach for the thermo-structural simulation of non-uniformly heated frames

A computationally efficient fiber element approach has been developed to evaluate the thermo-structural response of non-uniformly heated structural frames. The approach involves the use of two fiber-based elements for conducting the heat transfer and structural simulations. A numerical study is conducted here to evaluate the response of an unprotected beam exposed to a localized fire. Comparisons between the proposed fiber element approach and high-resolution finite element simulations demonstrate that the fiber-based thermal and structural elements collectively offer excellent accuracy. It is further shown that the fiber model substantially improves the computational efficiency by reducing the total number of degrees of freedom in the thermal and structural analyses. The proposed model further simplifies the transfer of thermal data from the heat transfer analysis to the structural model because the thermal and structural elements have the same mesh.

► Novel approach to modeling the response of non-uniformly heated frames. ► Application involving a beam exposed to localized fire. ► Accurate and highly efficient prediction of thermo-mechanical response. ► Demonstrated improvement over high-res FEA simulation.