Temperature, porosity and strength relationship for fire affected concrete

Abstract

In a fire incident, structural members are mostly unevenly exposed to temperatures and consequently suffer uneven damage. To rehabilitate and restore these for future usage, it is essential to correctly map the temperature field that the structural elements were subjected to during fire events. The majority of the existing relationships for temperature prediction apply to reinforced concrete beams only. In the present study, a material-porosity-based approach is proposed. Normal and high strength concrete structural elements were exposed to a range of elevated temperatures, and reserved compressive strength was evaluated. Another set of the same specimens were used to determine porosity using four techniques. Based on the observations, correlations among temperature, strength, and porosity for normal and high strength concrete are proposed. The suggested methodology and expressions may be used to predict the reserved strength and temperature field that the structural elements may have been exposed to, based on the evaluated porosity of concrete. Back-scattered electron Imaging was found to be the most fitting method for porosity evaluation.