Designing method for fire safety of steel box bridge girders

Xuyang Li, Gang Zhang, Venkatesh Kodur, Shuanhai He, Qiao Huang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents a designing method for enhancing fire resistance of steel box bridge girders (closed steel box bridge girder supporting a thin concrete slab) through taking into account such parameters namely; fire severity, type of longitudinal stiffeners (I, L, and T shaped), and number of longitudinal stiffeners. A validated 3-D finite element model, developed through the computer program ANSYS, is utilized to go over the fire response of a typical steel box bridge girder using the transient thermo-structural analysis method. Results from the numerical analysis show that fire severity and type of longitudinal stiffeners welded on bottom flange have significant influence on fire resistance of steel box bridge girders. T shaped longitudinal stiffeners applied on bottom flange can highly prevent collapse of steel box bridge girders towards the end of fire exposure. Increase of longitudinal stiffeners on bottom flange and web can slightly enhance fire resistance of steel box bridge girders. Rate of deflection-based criterion can be reliable to evaluate fire resistance of steel box bridge girders in most fire exposure cases. Thus, T shaped longitudinal stiffeners on bottom flange incorporated into bridge fire-resistance design can significantly enhance fire resistance of steel box bridge girders.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)657-670
Number of pages14
JournalSteel and Composite Structures
Volume38
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 25 Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 Techno-Press, Ltd.

Keywords

  • Bridge fires
  • Finite element model
  • Fire performance
  • Fire-resistance design
  • Steel box bridge girders

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