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National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Building and Fire Research Laboratory, Materials and Construction Research Division,
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8611, USA
b
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Building and Fire Research Laboratory, Fire Research Division,
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8663, USA
c
Mallett Technology, Laurel, MD 20707, USA
Received 19 April 2007; accepted 25 June 2007
Available online 20 August 2007
Abstract
One of the recommendations of the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) for the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation
of the World Trade Center Disaster [NIST NCSTAR 1 Final report on the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers. NCST for the
Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD, September 2005] is to enhance the capability of available computational software to predict the effects of res in
buildings, for use in the design of re protection systems and the analysis of building response to res. Following this recommendation,
this paper presents two new interfaces in rethermalstructural analysis. The rst interface uses adiabatic surface temperatures to
provide an efcient way of transferring thermal results from a re simulation to a thermal analysis. It assigns these temperatures to
surface elements of structural members based on proximity and directionality. The second interface allows the transfer of temperature
results from a thermal analysis modeled with solid elements to a structural analysis modeled with beams and shells. The interface also
allows the reverse, namely the geometric updating of the thermal model with deections and strains obtained from the structural analysis.
This last step is particularly useful in intense res of long duration, where signicant deections and strains could cause damage to
insulation and displace the structure to a different thermal regime. The procedures can be used for a variety of re simulation, thermal,
and structural analysis software.
Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Adiabatic surface temperature; Deection; Finite elements; Fire; Insulation; Plate thermometer; Structural analysis; Strain; Thermal analysis
1. Introduction
Following the investigation of the collapse of the World
Trade Center, the National Construction Safety Team
(NCST) recommended, among other things, that efforts be
made to enhance the capabilities of computational methods
to study the effect of realistic re on buildings, all the way to
the burn-out and cooling phases, or to collapse. The
recommendation was partially due to the difculties faced
by the investigators in interfacing the re, thermal, and
structural models that were used to study various collapse
hypotheses. Following this recommendation, this paper
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 301 975 4357; fax: +1 301 869 6275.
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sT 4pt
hpt T g T pt 0,
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Fig. 3. AST nodes for outside of column (inside nodes not shown).
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B
2R
R
2
3
z
6
t44
t1
B/2
2
t2
t2t2
y
H/2
W2
H
12
t33
9
7
8
W3 /3
W3 /3
11
W1 /2
W3 /3
t1
y
10
W1
Fig. 7. Some common beam cross sections and their transfer points.
The actual input at each beam end takes the form of three
temperatures at (x, 0, 0), (x, 1, 0) and (x, 0, 1), where x is
either 0 or L (length of beam element). The location of
the temperature transfer nodes depends on the cross
section. A number of commonly used cross sections, either
singly symmetric or doubly symmetric, are supported by
the newly developed interface macros (Fig. 7). If later or
different versions of the software transfer temperature
results directly to beams at specic points, rather than
through a mean and two gradients, the present interface
would still work with minor adaptation.
5.2. Deflection transfer
Solid element nodes from the thermal model are rst
mapped onto the undeformed structural model. Displacements u0 at the mapped nodes are calculated from
structural displacements u and rotations r from the nearest
beam or shell nodes by the kinematic vector equation
(in bold), where d is the distance between the mapped node
and the undeformed nearest structural node: u0 u+r d,
where denotes the vector cross product.
5.3. Strain transfer
Since strain transfer is done solely for the purpose of
determining insulation damage, it is not available at this
stage for shells, which are typically used to model
uninsulated slabs. For structural beams, strain results are
available at both beam ends at the corner nodes of crosssectional cells created automatically by the structural
software for various common sections. The strains exx
(x is the beam longitudinal axis) at various nodes on these
section perimeters are mapped onto the thermal model and
used to calculate by interpolation the strains at any nodes
of the interface between the steel and insulation. The
interpolation is linear over three dimensions, and uses the
thermal solid element shape functions. Currently, the user
can input a failure criterion, such as the tensile strain at the
interface between steel and insulation exceeding 5%. When
the criterion is reached for a given nite element, the
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Fig. 8. Temperature results (1C) from thermal model, shown without insulation.
Fig. 11. Thermal modelupdated geometry based on structural deections and failed insulation (red).
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7. Conclusion
This paper presents two user-friendly interfaces that
complement the existing rethermalstructural analysis
software. The rst interface uses adiabatic surface temperatures to provide an efcient way of transferring
thermal results from a re simulation to a thermal analysis.
It assigns these temperatures to surface elements of
structural members based on proximity and directionality.
The second interface allows the transfer of temperature
results from a thermal analysis modeled with solid elements
to a structural analysis modeled with beams and shells.
The interface also allows the reverse, namely the geometric
updating of the thermal model with deections and strains
obtained from the structural analysis. This last step is
particularly useful in intense res of long duration, where
signicant deections and strains could cause damage to
insulation and displace the structure to a different thermal
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