FULL SCALE FIRE TESTS ON A REINFORCED CONCRETE HIGH RISE STRUCTURE IN GLASGOW

This proposal seeks funds to allow fire tests that are due to take place on a concrete structure to be thoroughly instrumented. By measuring quantities such as temperatures and deflections it will be possible to ascertain how the structure and the fire itself behave and thus make suggestions about how buildings can be designed more safely in the future. Several aspects of behaviour in fire will be examined including the structural behaviour of concrete floors and walls; the behaviour of a truss similar to those used in the World Trade Center buildings that collapsed; smoke movement in evacuation routes; and the robustness of repair systems that are sometimes used on concrete buildings. The fire tests themselves are being funded by the Horizon television programme and the building in which they take place is derelict. This means it is possible to obtain data from tests that would normally cost millions of pounds, for only a small fraction of this cost.