Analysis of heated structures: Nature and modelling benchmarks

The move from using the standard fire test for structural fire design towards more rational design methods has led to an increased requirement for numerical modelling of structures in fire conditions. Such modelling is demanding and requires the inclusion of a number of phenomena that can usually be disregarded at ambient temperature. This paper identifies the key phenomena needed for accurate high temperature structural modelling and highlights their importance by reference to a conceptually simply but structurally complex problem. Consideration of this problem also highlights areas where relying on the standard fire test for structural fire design may lead to unconservative designs. The paper then proposes and defines two benchmark problems that will allow analysts to show that their modelling approach is valid and that the software they use is capturing all the required phenomena.