An Experimental Study on the H-Beam Under Fire Load in Open Space

To validate the fire safety assessment of structures, many structural experiments under fire load have been conducted. However, most of these experiments were conducted in restricted environments, such as inside a furnace, and experiments were seldom carried out in open space. In this study, an experimental study on H-beams, frequently used as structural reinforcements, was carried out for validating the thermal-structural analysis method under development. A 1.8 MW burner fire was adopted with each end of the H-beam fixed without a mechanical load. Gas temperature, steel surface temperature, and displacements were then measured. During the experiment, gas and steel temperatures were obtained at 9 and 17 points near the H-beam, respectively. In addition, the vertical and horizontal displacements of the H-beam under fire load at 6 points were obtained. Furthermore, it was verified that the stable displacement measurements via the contact and non-contact methods were feasible in harsh environments where flames and smoke were both present.