Fire Performance of Structural Wood-Metal Composites

01.03.2007 - 30.11.2008
Eigenprojekt
A preliminary series of app. 10 fire performance tests shall be performed on wood-metal composite specimens to determine behaviour parameters under fire conditions. The objective of this preliminary test series is establish the basis for an extended research project aimed at developing innovative wood-metal composites as structural building components with distinctly improved fire performance characteristics. Recent developments in timber engineering, together with growing public awareness of the ecological impact of the built environment, favour the increased use of the renewable resource wood as an alternative, high-performance construction material to meet rising quality demands regarding functionality, safety, and longevity. Many of the technological weaknesses of this natural material have been successfully alleviated through the development of specialty composites and component systems, the engineering of which focuses on configuring material combinations to optimise the use of each material¿s most beneficial characteristics. The proposed research shall apply this engineering approach to improve the fire safety of wood-based buildings through the development of new structural components. The results of related research to date indicate a potentially beneficial fire-retarding effect in wood-metal composites, which needs to be investigated in detail both theoretically and empirically. Hereby the aim is to exploit the positive thermal effects of combining wood with metal under the extreme conditions of a fire load, while keeping (or, ideally, improving) the structural efficiency of the building components under regularly assumed mechanical loads. To this end, wood-metal composite configurations need to be established that not only maintain the conditions for the fire-retarding effect throughout the entire fire scenario, but are also structurally meaningful given general building performance criteria. Once a reliable theoretical model of the behaviour of applicable wood-metal configurations has been verified by means of FEM simulation analysis and accompanying experimental test results, it shall form the basis for new fire protection strategies, which shall ultimately be delineated in design guidelines to facilitate implementation in structural design practice.

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DeutschEnglisch
BrandschutzFire Protection
Holzstahlverbundwood-steel composite
Tragstrukturelementestructural components
Holzbautimber engineering
Brandverhaltenfire performance

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