Numerical Study of Steel Beams in Sub-frame Assembly Validation of Existing Hand Calculation Procedures Available to Purchase

The design methods currently proposed by the codes prescribe the strength assessment of structures to be based on their strength limit state. These design methods can be applied to isolated steel members to determine their design strengthin fire. The real response of a structural member is, however, more complex due to the thermal expansion and the presence of restraints against this expansion by the surrounding structure. It is therefore imperative to study the response of a structural member at high temperature in a way which includes its interaction with its surroundings. This paper focus on the numerical investigation of steel beams in structural frames connected to concrete filled tubular (CFT) columns through reverse channel connections and comparison to hand calculation procedures. Finite element models (FEM) of the sub-frames were validated against fire tests conducted on sub-frames and then their results were compared to the proposed simplified hand calculation procedures (HCM).