Investigation On The Fire Resistance Of Composite Cellular Beams

The temperature distributions and developments, failure modes and failure temperatures of composite cellular beams in a standard fire condition were investigated thoroughly by the Finite Element Method in this thesis. In addition the lateral displacements of the bottom flanges at failure and the post-local buckling strength of the members were also evaluated. Different parameters, including elongated circular opening shape, web-post stiffener, section type of the steel beam, beam span, ratio of opening diameter to the section height of the steel beam, ratio of the web-post width to the opening diameter, et al, were studied in terms of its influence on the fire resistance of composite cellular beams. According to the results, effects of these parameters on the failure mode and failure temperature of composite cellular beams are great. Composite cellular beams may fail by the interaction of the global bending, local buckling of several continuous web-posts and the Vierendeel mechanism failure around the elongated web opening. Based on the systemic parametric study, design tables are provided for the practical design of the fire resistance of composite cellular beams.