Towards scenario fires - modelling structural response to fire using an integrated computational tool

Modern architecture has been challenging the obsolete assumptions of the current fire safety engineering approaches, most of which still rely on the standard fire curve and continue to focus on the fire resistance of isolated single members. It has been observed time and again that buildings designed to the code-required fire performance fail in fires where the fire behaviour is found beyond current understanding. To fill this gap in knowledge and practice and move a step forward towards more rational fire safety engineering approaches, an integrated modelling tool is proposed in this article which is devoted to the implementation of realistic and advanced fire models that can be used routinely in analyses accounting for heat transfer and thermo-mechanical behaviour. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the tool utility in simulating a tall building subjected to vertically travelling fire and a low-rise building subjected to a localised fire.