Experimental study on heat transfer of concrete at high temperatures under hygrothermal environment

Abstract

Safety of concrete structures could be threatened under fire exposure, especially for structures under hygrothermal environment. Existing studies have shown that concrete contains large amount of moisture could induce spalling failure and the temperature is a critical parameter for the damage. However, until now, the study for heat transfer of concrete with different saturation degree remains limited. In this paper, the temperature increase of concrete specimens with different saturation degree is experimentally studied. Results show that the temperature increase rate could be affected by the moisture content significantly, especially for the cases under higher temperatures. The test results could be significant for our future fire damage simulation of concrete structures under hygrothermal environment.