TY - JOUR
T1 - Fire hazard assessment, performance evaluation, and fire resistance enhancement of bridges
AU - Khan, Mustesin Ali
AU - Khan, Aatif Ali
AU - Domada, Ramakanth
AU - Usmani, Asif
N1 - Funding Information:
The work reported in this paper has formed part of the SureFire project (T22-505/19-N) funded by the Research Grants Council Hong Kong under its Theme-based Research Scheme. This research is also funded by the RGC Hong Kong GRF Scheme and HK PolyU. The authors also acknowledge the additional support provided by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for this Project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Institution of Structural Engineers
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Although the performance of bridge structures under prescriptive fire scenarios has been the subject of numerous studies, performance-based approaches are yet to be developed to achieve an efficient and economical design. This paper presents a performance-based framework that identifies bridges at high fire risk, produces realistic fire scenarios, provides an open source tool to apply the realistic fire load to the thermomechanical model and evaluate the structural performance of the bridge. It also provides guidance to improve the fire resistance of the bridge. The proposed framework is implemented by simulating the I-65 overpass fire accident in 2002, Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Firstly, fire risk of the bridge is estimated by considering various criteria such as the social and economic impact of fire, structural vulnerability, and the likelihood of fire. Secondly, a realistic fire scenario is developed using the real fire accident data by conducting computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Thirdly, the newly developed open source FSDM framework is utilised to apply the realistic fire load to the thermomechanical model and finally, the fire resistance of the bridge structure is estimated. The unprotected bridge failed after 12 min of fire exposure which is found in compliance with the actual failure time of the bridge during the accident. Further thermomechanical analyses are performed applying different thicknesses of fire protection to estimate the suitable amount of fire protection to achieve improved fire resistance. It is observed that the fire resistance of the bridge can be enhanced up to 60 min by providing a fire protection of 12 mm thickness. This framework presents an important methodology for the highway department and bridge engineers to identify bridges at high fire risk and accurately determine the amount of fire protection required to reduce the fire risk and enhance the fire resistance of these bridges.
AB - Although the performance of bridge structures under prescriptive fire scenarios has been the subject of numerous studies, performance-based approaches are yet to be developed to achieve an efficient and economical design. This paper presents a performance-based framework that identifies bridges at high fire risk, produces realistic fire scenarios, provides an open source tool to apply the realistic fire load to the thermomechanical model and evaluate the structural performance of the bridge. It also provides guidance to improve the fire resistance of the bridge. The proposed framework is implemented by simulating the I-65 overpass fire accident in 2002, Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Firstly, fire risk of the bridge is estimated by considering various criteria such as the social and economic impact of fire, structural vulnerability, and the likelihood of fire. Secondly, a realistic fire scenario is developed using the real fire accident data by conducting computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Thirdly, the newly developed open source FSDM framework is utilised to apply the realistic fire load to the thermomechanical model and finally, the fire resistance of the bridge structure is estimated. The unprotected bridge failed after 12 min of fire exposure which is found in compliance with the actual failure time of the bridge during the accident. Further thermomechanical analyses are performed applying different thicknesses of fire protection to estimate the suitable amount of fire protection to achieve improved fire resistance. It is observed that the fire resistance of the bridge can be enhanced up to 60 min by providing a fire protection of 12 mm thickness. This framework presents an important methodology for the highway department and bridge engineers to identify bridges at high fire risk and accurately determine the amount of fire protection required to reduce the fire risk and enhance the fire resistance of these bridges.
KW - CFD
KW - Fire load
KW - Fire protection
KW - Fire resistance
KW - Fire risk assessment
KW - Performance-based design
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118475050&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.istruc.2021.10.080
DO - 10.1016/j.istruc.2021.10.080
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85118475050
SN - 2352-0124
VL - 34
SP - 4704
EP - 4714
JO - Structures
JF - Structures
ER -