Analysis of the fire effect on loadbearing LSF walls and design of experimental test setup

Abstract

This work present a study of the fire behaviour of loadbearing LSF walls. This study was made with the development of model in finite elements and parametric analysis to evaluete the effects of steel section and plasterboard thickness on the fire resistance. It was also design the experimental test setup for future experimental researchs in IPB facilities. The model was developed with the use of shell elements for the steel structure and solid elements for the boards. It was made mechanic, termal and termo-mechanic simulations, that were validated with the use of experimental tests results previous realized in University of Queensland. The parametric analysis demostrated that the plasterboard thickness was of little effect in the fire behaviour of the wall, close to 3.5% of increase in the temperature evolution, what can be explained by the composite panel utilized. The steel section thickness however presented a greater influence, 58.15% of increase of the loadbeaing capacity of the wall.