The Criteria for Assessing the Safety of Buildings with a Reinforced Concrete Frame during an Earthquake after a Fire

In the paper, there was researched sensitivity of the criteria for evaluation of seismic resistance of reinforced structures (modes and frequencies of oscillations, displacements, and strains) in relation to various position of fire impact as exemplified by three-span five-storey reinforced concrete space frame. The relevance of the study is justified, the degree of the problem’s development is grounded. There were analyzed the main lines of the research connected with experimental and numerical testing of both discrete structures and full-sized buildings. Numerical analysis was conducted by means of the software complex Ansys, the linear-spectral method was used. Fire impact is simulated by means of damages to reinforced concrete members in one of the building’s units. 16 variants of points of fire outbreak were considered. According to the calculation results, it was stated that for all the variants of fire outbreak frequencies of self-oscillations for reinforced concrete frames after the fire had been found lower than for the non-damaged frame. The modal analysis has shown that the type of longitudinal and bending oscillations had undergone changes. The maximum amplitude of frames’ oscillations after the fire was found insignificantly lower than for the non-damaged frame. Within the floor of fire outbreak location, the displacement increased immensely so that led to failure to comply with the value of inter-floor shifts and the increase of the 2nd order effects. Redistribution of bending moments in reinforced concrete framings was observed. The loading in damaged members decreased due to the members’ strain capacity whereas the extra loading is added to the adjacent members. If compared with the case of the frame non-damaged by fire, overloading of columns can reach up to 20%. Conceptual description of fracture behavior of the frame is outlined assuming its non-linear behavior. The possible lines of further development are set for the methods of seismic analysis of the buildings with reinforced concrete frame after the event of fire.

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