Behaviour of Fire Exposed Reinforced Concrete Rigid Beams with Restrained Ends

Abstract

This paper is devoted to investigate the effect of burning by fire flame on the behavior and load carrying capacity of rectangular reinforced concrete rigid beams. Reduced scale beam models (which are believed to resemble as much as possible field conditions) were suggested. Five end restrained beam specimens were cast and tested. The specimens were subjected to fire flame temperatures ranging from (25-750) ºC at age of 60 days, two temperature levels of 400ºC and 750ºC were chosen with exposure duration of 1.5 hour. The cast rectangular reinforced concretebeam (2250×375×375 mm) (length× width× height respectively) were subjected to fire. Results indicate remarkable reduction in the ultrasonic pulse velocity and rebound number of the rigid beams after cooled in water were (2-5 %) more than rigid beam specimens cooled in air. Load-deflection curves indicate deleterious response to the fire exposure. Also, it was noticed that the maximum crack width increases with increasing fire temperature.

Keywords

• Rigid Beams; Fire Flame; Fire Endurance; Crack Pattern; Moment Capacity