Fire resistance of long span cellular beam made of rolled profiles (FICEB) report: Ulster test numerical simulation

In the Ulster fire test, a large scale composite floor using cellular beams connected to composite slabs will be tested under natural fire. The particularity of the composite floor in this test is that certain cellular beams will be without any fire protection in order to investigate the contribution of membrane effect to overall fire resistance. However, cellular beams could behave in a very different way compared to traditional steel beams because of risk of local phenomenon. The aim of this study was to build a complex FE Model of whole composite floor system with long span cellular beams connected to composite slab in order to take account of 3D membrane effect. This permitted, on the one hand, to find out the right numerical model for this type of composite floor, and on the other hand to define the appropriate structure to be used for the full scale fire test. In order to achieve this latter purpose, a sensitivity study has be carried out in which determinant parameters for ensuring a good membrane effect have been investigated.