A primer and success stories on performance-based fire design of structures

Purpose - The extreme nature of fire makes structural fire engineering unique in that the load actions dictating design are intense and neither geographically nor seasonally bound. Simply, fire can break out anywhere, at any time and for any number of reasons. Despite the apparent need, the fire design of structures still relies on expensive fire tests, complex finite element simulations and outdated procedures with little room for innovation. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.Design/methodology/approach - This primer highlights the latest state of the art in this area with regard to performance-based design in fire structural engineering. In addition, this short review also presents a series of examples of successful implementation of performance-based fire design of structures from around the world.Findings - A comparison between global efforts clearly shows the advances put forth by European and Oceanian efforts as opposed to the rest of the world. In addition, it can be clearly seen that most performance based fire designs are related to steel and composite structures.Originality/value - In one study, this paper presents a concise and global view to performance-based fire design of structures from success stories from around the world.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the unique nature of structural fire engineering and highlights the reliance on expensive fire tests and outdated procedures. It compares global efforts in performance-based fire design and finds that European and Oceanian efforts are more advanced. Most performance-based fire designs are related to steel and composite structures.