Post-flashover fires for structural design

One of the major difficulties in designing structures to resist fires is the selection of post-flashover design fires. This paper proposes modifications to the parametric equation for post-flashover fires given in the Eurocode. The proposal is based on design fires obtained from the COMPF2 computer program, after calibration to results from realistic test fires using judicious characterisation of the fuel in the input data. The proposed new equation gives a much better fit to the real fire data than the existing Eurocode equation, which predicts temperatures lower than those measured in tests. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.