A study of the effectiveness of 3-sided fireproofing protection for structural beams in hydrocarbon fires

3-sided fireproofing protection is commonly used in industrial facilities, where pipe supports, equipment supports, and gratings are laid on the unprotected top flange of a fire protected structural beam.
Fire resistance testing on single, loaded, beams with 3-side fireproofing protection shows that premature failure occurs, and that this can be rapid compared to the required fire resistance durations.
However, test evidence does not reflect real engineered structures which are more complex than single beams, and where anecdotal evidence suggests that in real fires failures have not occurred.
This project will investigate realistic fire resistance performance of beams with 3-sided protection, including temperature developments in realistic scenarios and restraining effects of secondary members that are not included in furnace fire resistance testing. The result of this project will be used to develop guidelines that can be used for assessing whether an existing or new structural design is a suitable candidate for 3-sided protection.

The objectives are:
- simplified method of calculating key temperatures in the cross-section under different fire and heat flux conditions;
- validation of the simplified method of calculating key temperatures
- Level of lateral torsional buckling restraints offered by secondary memebrs
- Method of evaluating lateral torsional buckling resistance
- Optimisation of fire protection and structural layout

The work will combine numerical modelling, fire testing and analytical development, with the fire testing to be carried out by the sponsoring company.

The novelty of the project includes a simplified method of calculating key temperatures in the cross-section with three-side fire protection validated by fire testing, deep understanding of lateral torsional buckling of 3-side protected steel beams with a variety of lateral restraints encountered in practice and a design method for calculating the LTB resistance, and application of the new knowledge in optimal design of structural configuration and fire protection scheme.