Modeling the behavior of load bearing concrete walls under fire exposure

A generic three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) based numerical model is presented for predicting thermo-mechanical behavior of load bearing reinforced concrete (RC) walls exposed to fire. The proposed model is capable of accounting for critical parameters governing fire resistance of RC walls including wall slenderness ratio, support restrains, and temperature dependent properties of reinforcement and concrete. The model is validated by comparing predicted thermal and structural response parameters with the experimental data on three full scale load bearing RC walls tested under fire exposure. The comparisons show good correlation between model predictions and measured data, indicating that the proposed model can predict the thermo-mechanical behavior of RC walls from pre-loading to collapse stage under fire exposure. The validated model can be applied to undertake parametric studies aimed at quantifying critical factors governing fire performance of load bearing RC walls under fire.