ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the methods available to simulate a fire in a compartment and the behavior of construction materials under elevated temperatures. Modeling of fire is a complex process, which is done in two parts: the method by which the temperature produced by the fire is accounted for, known as design fire, and the temporal and spatial properties of the considered temperature rise applied to the structural elements, known as boundary conditions. This step is known as the heat transfer mechanism, and is explained in the following sections. Based on these processes, the thermal and mechanical responses of the structural components at elevated temperatures can be studied. By applying the failure criteria, as explained in the previous chapter, it is then possible to see whether a structure has failed.
