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An approach to account for tie configuration in predicting fire resistance of

reinforced concrete columns

Article · November 2013

DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2013.08.023

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Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 1976–1985

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Engineering Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

An approach to account for tie configuration in predicting fire resistance

of reinforced concrete columns
Venkatesh Kodur a,⇑, Wasim Khaliq b, Nikhil Raut c
a
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
b
NUST Institute of Civil Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
c
Offshore Structural Analysis (SACS), Bentley Systems Inc., Metairie, LA 70002, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: High strength concrete (HSC) columns exhibit lower fire resistance, as compared to conventional normal
Received 21 December 2012 strength concrete columns, due to occurrence of fire induced spalling and faster degradation of strength
Revised 17 July 2013 and stiffness properties of concrete with temperature. Fire resistance tests on HSC columns have shown
Accepted 21 August 2013
that fire performance of HSC columns can be enhanced through bending the ends of ties at 135° into the
Available online 23 September 2013
concrete core, instead of bending the ties at 90°. This paper presents an analytical approach to model the
effect of tie configuration on fire resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) columns. The proposed approach
Keywords:
is based on seismic design principles and involves calculation of force acting on ties by evaluating effec-
Reinforced concrete columns
Fire resistance
tive stresses resulting from pore pressure, mechanical strain and thermal expansion. The resulting force
Tie configuration acting on ties is compared against temperature (time) dependent bond strength (at the tie–concrete
Spalling interface) to evaluate the failure of ties. The proposed tie sub-model is built into an existing macroscopic
Numerical model finite element based fire resistance analysis computer program that is capable of tracing the fire response
of reinforced concrete (RC) columns in the entire range of behavior. The predictions from the model are
compared against the full-scale fire resistance tests on RC columns to demonstrate the validity of the pro-
posed approach in evaluating the beneficial effect of 135° tie configuration. The validated model is
applied, through case studies, to quantify the effect of tie configuration on fire resistance of reinforced
concrete columns. Results from numerical studies clearly show that HSC columns with 135° bent ties
exhibit higher fire resistance than those HSC columns with 90° bent ties.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Fire represents one of the most severe environmental condi-
tions in buildings; therefore, provision of appropriate fire safety
measures to structural members is an important aspect in building
design. Generally, structural members made of conventional con-
crete exhibit good performance under fire situations. However, in
the last three decades a number of new types concrete have come
into market place as a result of significant research and develop-
ment. These new concretes, often referred to as high strength con-
crete (HSC) or high performance concrete (HPC), have excellent
strength and durability properties, but exhibit lower fire perfor-
mance due to fire induced spalling [1–3] and faster degradation
of strength and stiffness properties of concrete with temperature.
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: 3546 Engineering Building, Civil and Environ-
mental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Tel.:
+1 5173539813; fax: +1 5174321827.
E-mail addresses: kodur@egr.msu.edu (V. Kodur), wasimkhaliq@nice.nust.
edu.pk (W. Khaliq), nikhil.raut@bentley.com (N. Raut).
To mitigate fire induced spalling, and thus increase fire resis-
tance of HSC structural members, researchers have recommended
the addition of polypropylene and/or steel fibers to concrete mixes
[4–7]. Under fire conditions, the polypropylene fibers that are dis-
persed in concrete mix melt at relatively low temperature (about
160–170 °C) and create randomly oriented micro- and macro-
channels inside concrete, which facilitate dissipation of fire in-
duced vapor pressure [8,9] and thus enhance fire resistance of con-
crete members. In the case of steel fibers, tensile strength of
concrete gets enhanced (both at ambient and elevated tempera-
tures) as steel fibers help arrest the initiation and progression of
microcracks [10,11]. This improved tensile strength of concrete is
sufficient to resist the vapor pressure generated from steam for a
longer duration and thus the extent of spalling gets minimized
and fire resistance gets enhanced [9].
In lieu of adding fibers, some researchers recommend modify-
ing tie configuration to limit the spalling and enhance fire resis-
tance [12,13]. These researchers, based on limited fire tests on
HSC columns, have shown that fire performance of HSC columns
can be enhanced by bending the ends of ties at 135° into the
concrete core, instead of bending the ties at 90° [12,14]. Fig. 1

0141-0296/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2013.08.023

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