ABSTRACT

Steel is a highly thermal conductive material, however it loses strength and stiffness quickly when exposed to fire. Therefore, it is vitally important to consider the structural fire behaviour of steel and steel composite members to ensure that they have the appropriate fire resistance. Various fire protection methods may be adopted to promote the fire resistance ability. For example, applying intumescent coating to the steel surface is an effective approach, however it is expensive and the intumescent coating itself does not provide any structural strength to the structural elements. Concrete being a thermal inert material and has been recognized to provide an effective temperature sink which could reduce the temperature of steel during fire. Furthermore, the temperature of concrete core rises much slower than that of steel tube thus the concrete core may provide appropriate load bearing capacity even when the steel tube has reached to its critical temperature.