National Fire Research Laboratory: Fire Resistance of Structures Project

At present, there is no research facility in the world that allows scientists and engineers to conduct research on the response of real-scale structural systems to realistic fire and mechanical loading under controlled laboratory conditions.  The National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL), currently under construction and slated to be completed by the end of CY 2012, will serve these research needs.  The unique facility will enable experiments on the performance of structural elements, subassemblies, and systems exposed to fires up to 20 MW and will contribute to the technical basis for performance-based design methodologies for structures exposed to fire.  This project seeks to: (1) develop a long-term research roadmap for fire resistance of structures in the NFRL that integrates modeling into the NFRL experimental research portfolio, (2) develop a comprehensive NFRL safety program, including safety requirements for the unique challenges posed by the combination of large-scale fire and structural testing, (3) develop the business and operational strategies in support of the NFRL research agenda, and (4) conduct experiments and validate models for the development of a database on the fire resistance performance of structural connections, components, subassemblies, and systems under realistic fire and loading conditions.

Objective:  To provide the overall management and strategic development for research to be conducted in the NFRL by (1) developing a long-term research roadmap for fire resistance of structures in the NFRL that integrates modeling into the NFRL experimental research portfolio, (2) developing a comprehensive NFRL safety program, (3) developing the business and operational strategies in support of the NFRL research agenda , and (4) conducting experiments and validating models for the development of a database on the fire resistance performance of structures under realistic fire and loading conditions.

What is the new technical idea?  Currently there is no research facility in the world that would allow scientists and engineers to conduct research on the response of real-scale structural systems to a realistic fire and mechanical loading under controlled laboratory conditions.  Expansion of the NFRL, currently under construction (2012), when completed, will allow structures, ranging in size from small components to large systems up to 2 stories in height and 2 bays × 3 bays in plan, to be tested under fully-developed building fires up to 20 MW using natural gas, liquid hydrocarbons, wood cribs, or actual building contents.  Mechanical loading will be applied using configurable hydraulic actuators or fixed loads.  The new research capabilities will enable NFRL to explore innovative measurement techniques to (1) better characterize fire-structure interaction, (2) develop an experimental database on the performance of large-scale structural connections, components, sub-assemblies, and systems under realistic fire and other typical vertical/lateral loads, (3) validate physics-based computational models to predict fire resistance performance of structures, (4) enable performance-based standards for fire resistance design of structures, and (5) foster innovations in design and construction.

What is the research plan?  A workshop to develop an International R & D Roadmap for Fire Resistance of Structures, emphasizing a multi-year, multi-institution large-scale experimental program to support performance-based engineering and modeling/simulation by involving the international stakeholder community, will be conducted in the spring of FY 2013 to forge research partnerships in the area of structural performance in fire and to discuss the sharing of experimental resources to support research of mutual interest.  The development of the NFRL research plan incorporating experimental work and associated validated modeling will be guided by the recommendations from the workshop.

The project will develop safety best practices for NFRL.  This task will include data gathering and review of current safe practices, lessons learned, and protocols employed by other domestic and international structural and fire testing laboratories.  The best practices for NFRL will be developed and documented and will include safety operation requirements, training requirements, etc.  In addition, a computational tool, currently under development, will be used for the planning, design, and safe conduct of structural-fire tests.  The tool includes structural, thermal, and fire dynamics models of the laboratory, reaction frames, and test specimens.

This project will develop the business and operational strategies in support of the NFRL research agenda including (1) the development of a staffing plan and business plan and (2) the identification and forging of strategic domestic and international partnerships to enable collaborative research.

This project will involve designing and conducting of experiments to develop an experimental database on the fire resistance performance of large-scale structural connections, components, subassemblies, and systems under realistic fire and loading conditions that can be used to validate predictive models and enable the development of performance-based design methodologies for structures under fire.  In addition, the project will develop validated structure-fire interaction modeling and simulation capabilities ranging from fire dynamics simulations, thermal analysis, to structural modeling.

Recent Results:

• Extensive recruitment (hired one structural research engineer, one structural engineering technician, and one engineering support contractor, two guest scientists with strong background in fire-structure interaction) (output)
• Business plan (including staffing, operating model and potential funding strategies and partnership with stakeholders) drafted (output)
• Stakeholder outreach initiated (output)
• • Workshop with federal partners conducted
  • CIB International Fire Resistance Workshop planning initiated
  • Research collaboration planning with NSF
  • Information exchange and research planning with foreign partners (NRC-Canada, ABRI, University of Edinburgh)
• Safe laboratory operations
• • Safety documents from  NEES laboratories, FHWA, and ABRI have been gathered and reviewed for development of  NFRL operations best practices

Using the new capabilities of the NFRL, NIST will develop experimental data on the performance of large-scale structural connections, components, subassemblies, and systems under realistic fire and loading.  Such data will allow the validation of physics-based models to predict fire resistance performance of structures, and thereby provide the technical basis for establishing performance-based standards for fire resistance design of structures, and foster innovation in design and construction.  NIST will work closely with code-writing bodies such as the ICC, and SDOs such as SFPE, NFPA, ASTM, AISC, ACI, and possibly ISO for implementation of performance-based design/rehabilitation methodologies.