ABSTRACT
In this paper, a series of experiments were presented to investigate the damage mode of thick fireproof coatings for steel members under monotonic loading. The corresponding finite element models were established to analyze the stress distribution in the coatings and on the interface. The FEM
1 INTRODUCTION
Steel members are particularly sensitive to the elevated temperatures. To protect the steel structures, thick fireproof coatings are widely adopted in China. And according to the historical research, there is a large probability on the occurrence of post-earthquake fire, which has been considered as one of major threats in seismic regions (Trifunac & Todorvska 1998). Due to large structural deformation in earthquake, thick fireproof coatings would be easily damaged, which may leads to a considerable reduction in fire resistance. Hence, damage estimation of thick fireproof coatings for steel members in earthquake is of great significance to the performance evaluation of steel structures subjected to earthquake and subsequent fire.
