Temperature heterogeneity during travelling fire on experimental building

In order to follow modern trends in contemporary building architecture which is moving off the limits of current fire design models, assumption of homogeneous temperature conditions used for structural fire analysis needs to be validated. In this paper it is described, how temperature distribution in a medium-size fire compartment has been investigated experimentally by conducting fire test in two-storey experimental building in September 2011 in the Czech Republic. In the upper floor, a scenario of travelling fire was prepared. It has been observed that as flames were spreading across the compartment, considerable temperature gradients appeared. Numerical simulation of the travelling fire test conducted using FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator) has been compared with simulation of compartment fire under uniform temperature conditions to highlight the potential impact of the gas temperature heterogeneity on structural behaviour. The temperature measurements from the fire test have been used for validation of the numerical simulation of travelling fire. The fire test has provided important data for design model of travelling fire and shown that its impact on structural behaviour is not in agreement with the assumption of homogenous temperature conditions.