Structural Design for Fire Conditions of a Prototype Metal Building using the New Proposed Appendix to AISI S100
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Date
2022-05
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AISI
Abstract
Performance-Based Design (PBD) for fire conditions has been increasingly adopted for different structural systems over the last decade. The objective of this project is to exemplify through a case study how the newly proposed Appendix 4 to AISI S100 on 'Structural Design for Fire Conditions' can be used by the metal building industry. The report describes a procedure to complete the structural fire design of cold-formed steel structures and applies it to column assemblies taken from a prototype one-story metal building designed following U.S. building codes. The fire design procedure includes the definition of performance objectives, design fires, heat transfer analyses by the finite element method, and structural analyses using both the Direct Strength Method and finite element modeling. The results show that the design by analysis achieves the required performance while enabling flexibility and efficiency in design. Thermal analyses provide steel temperatures consistent with prescriptive fire ratings and are also used to demonstrate adequacy of unrated assemblies such as protected double C-shaped sections. The FE model confirms the applicability of the Direct Strength Method with appropriate retention factors to evaluate the elevated temperature response. The CFS columns maintain stability well beyond their prescriptive rating owing to the low applied load resulting from the ASCE/SEI 7 load combination in the fire situation, which does not include wind. Therefore, for structures which are lightly loaded in the fire situation, such as these metal building columns, analysis methods can be used to demonstrate superior performance compared to the applied fire resistance rating.