ABSTRACT
Structural fire safety is one of the three requirements that have to be fulfilled by a fire resistant
construction, whose function is to ensure that a fire in a building is contained within the compartment
of origin so that occupants in other parts of the building can escape to safety and fire damages do not
become excessive. To achieve this, the load bearing structure of a fire resistant construction should
not collapse in fire. The other two fire resistance requirements are
Insulation. The unexposed surface of a fire resistant construction should not be heated excessively and cause further ignition. Clearly, whether any material will be ignited or not will not only depend
on the temperature of the unexposed surface, but also on its nature and its relative position to the
unexposed surface. Nevertheless, at present, regulations worldwide limit the average temperature
rise on the unexposed surface to 140C and the maximum local temperature rise to 180C. Integrity. Gaps should not develop in fire resistant construction to spread fire.
