ABSTRACT
Abstract Fire is a complex and capricious phenomenon and it is not surprising that there are many difficulties facing the numerical modeller who wishes to predict basic fire spread mechanisms leading to predictions of the growth and full development of fires inside and outside buildings. Full scale fire testing has always featured strongly in providing data on structural elements which can be used in regulations and codes. This paper describes the role of full scale standard and ad hoc fire tests for proving structural performance, identifies some unresolved problems and makes recommendations for future practice.
