ABSTRACT
The heat transfer model is validated on the basis of the charring rate and the temperatures measured on the tested connections. The thermo-mechanical model allows obtaining fire resistance durations of the connections using the load-slip curves. These numerical results were compared to the experimental ones. The fire resistance times obtained by the numerical model are always lower than those obtained from the experimental tests with a mean relative error of about 15% (Audebert 2010b). Based on these results, the thermomechanical model is considered sufficiently accurate to represent safely the behavior of the connections exposed to fire.
