Behaviour of a concrete structure in a real compartment fire

In July 2006, a full-scale compartment fire was set in an existing block of flats in Dalmarnock, Glasgow, Scotland. Prior to ignition, the structure was instrumented with deflection gauges, thermocouples and strain gauges. The growth of the fire was also carefully monitored. The resulting data provided a unique record of the behaviour of a concrete structure in fire through a heating–cooling cycle. The results show significant variation in structural temperatures within a relatively small compartment, demonstrating that the assumption of uniform temperature at any level within a fire compartment, which is implicit in many simple design fires, is incorrect. The response of the structure showed a corresponding complexity due to the combination of non-uniform spatial and temporal heating and the structural boundary conditions.