Sustainable Steel-Timber Hybrid Structures in Fire

There is a growing demand for steel-timber hybrid construction from property owners and designers seeking more environmentally sensitive solutions for multi storey buildings. These hybrid systems based on a frame of steel beams and columns, combined structurally with Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) floors, are being used as a competitive and innovative construction alternative to steel buildings with concrete slabs for multi-storey office buildings. This new approach to high rise construction offers significant environmental benefits over the well-established and widely used steel-concrete construction by reducing the embodied carbon impacts by approximately 50%. However, there are concerns over the structural fire performance of such buildings. The proposed work aims to improve the understanding of the fire performance of steel framed buildings with CLT slabs and develop structural fire engineering analysis capability for steel and timber hybrid construction.