Fire performance of cold, warm and hybrid LSF wall panels using numerical studies

Robust and pre-fabrication construction techniques are the cutting edge practice in the building industry. Cold-frame, warm-frame and hybrid-frame are three common Light-gauge Steel Frame (LSF) wall constructions applied for better energy performance. Still, the applications of the aforementioned wall configurations are restricted due to limited fire safety studies. This paper presents the fire performance investigations and results of cold-frame, warm-frame, and hybrid-frame LSF walls together with three novel configurations maintaining the same material quantities. Successfully validated 3D heat transfer finite element models were extended to six wall configurations. Time variant temperature profiles from Finite Element Analyses were evaluated against the established Load Ratio (LR)-Hot-Flange (HF) temperature curve to determine the structural fire resistance. Modified warm-frame construction showed the best performance where the Fire Resistance Level (FRL) is approximately twice that of conventional LSF wall configurations. Hence, the novel LSF wall configurations obtained by shifting the insulation material toward the fireside of the wall make efficient fire-resistant wall solutions and the new designs are proposed to be incorporated in modular constructions for enhanced fire performance. •Fire Performance of cold, warm, hybrid and three novel LSF wall constructions has been investigated.•FEMs were developed, validated against experimental results and extended to analyse six LSF wall types.•LR - critical HF temperature relationship for LSF wall studs has been established from experimental and numerical results.•A novel LSF wall construction, the modified warm-frame is proposed with enhanced energy and fire performance.•Up to 100% improvement in FRL was obtained with three innovative LSF walls.