1. Fire Safety

The purpose of steel building fire safety is to reduce the risk of both life and property losses, It is a well known fact that the material properties of all types of building materials can be damaged when they are exposed to high levels of temperatures for a considerable time. Naturally steel building members also can be damaged under excessive heat exposure, causing considerable plastic deformation. The structural strength of steel decreases by as much as half at temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the structural steel members require fire protection through use of insulation materials. Insulating the steel enables the continued ability to resist collapse, while preventing flame penetration through partitioning walls, slabs and ceilings as well.

Click to enlarge image

Picture 1.1- Fire effects on the profile sections

The basic idea behind any kind of fire protection system is to retard exposure time and degrade the fire's severity on the structural members. A well-designed fire protection system must be able to supply the foreseen protection period to give the building occupants enough time to escape and allow the fire service to control the fire. The type and thickness of insulation depends on the required fire resistance period and the section factor (which can be described as the heated perimeter/cross-sectional area) of the steel member concerned. The insulation thickness must be selected as such that the temperature of the steel member does not exceed a critical value during the required fire protection time.

Steel building fire resistance periods may change (in the range ½, 1, 2 or 4 hours) in various countries depending upon the applied code, type of building and the possible consequences of a structural failure. In general, the steel building fire protection system can be supplied either by using an active or a passive protection method, depending upon its application. A wide range of fire protection systems are available today. Water sprinkler systems and water-filled structural member systems are considered to be active fire protection systems. Integrated structural members, insulating boards, sprayed coatings, intumescent coatings, suspended ceilings, concrete covers and composite member protections are considered to be passive fire protection systems.

E-mail this article