Passive fire protection of steel profiles using wood

Steel-timber hybrid structures are becoming more and more common in the construction industry. They offer high practical advantages as sustainable solutions with high load-bearing capacities and fire resistance. Wood is occasionally used as a passive protection for steel to maintain its mechanical strength as long as possible with the aim to prevent structural collapse under fire. This paper aims to analyse the thermal behaviour of hybrid stee-ltimber elements through experimental tests and numerical modelling. The fire tests were performed on various steel-timber combinations using T and I steel cross-sections with various wood species. A high-temperature furnace of up to 1200.C built in the laboratory was used. The results show that wood provides a significant protection to the steel cross-section, mainly to the fully encapsulated IPE profile. Wood performed as an insulating material that significantly reduced the temperature rise in steel. The experimental results are compared to those obtained through thermal simulations using Abaqus software. The comparison shows that the numerical model can be used to evaluate the temperature increase in the steel element protected by timber in hightemperature conditions.

Automated summary

This paper aims to analyze the thermal behavior of hybrid stee-ltimber elements through experimental tests and numerical modeling. The results demonstrate that wood provides significant protection to the steel cross-section, acting as an insulating material to reduce temperature rise. The experimental results are validated by thermal simulations using Abaqus software, indicating the model's ability to evaluate temperature increase in high-temperature conditions for steel elements protected by timber.