FURNACE HEAT-TRANSFER PROCESSES APPLIED TO A STRATEGY FOR THE FIRE TESTING OF REDUCED SCALE STRUCTURAL MODELS

A previous strategy for the fire resting of reduced scale structural m odels subject to standard fire exposure on one side is developed. The basis for the establishment of a model fire curve is articulated, whic h will produce equivalence of thermo-structural output between model a nd prototype by creating thermal distributions in the model, which are dynamically similar to that experimentally obtained in the prototype. The analysis takes into consideration the complex nature of both conv ective and radiative surface energy transfer between the furnace gases and specimen, utilising a one-dimensional heat transfer computer simu lation, formulated on a spreadsheet. Model fire curves can be predicte d on the basis of convective, radiative or mixed-mode simulations. The results of the tests indicate good similitude in thermal response for samples scaled by 1/root 2 and 1/2. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Scien ce Ltd.