The performance of fire doors is essential for the fire safety in buildings. In the present study, a series of large-scale fire tests on sliding doors is performed in the facilities of the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology. The test specimens comprise typical and commercially available door solutions for building applications. Similar doors of approximate dimensions 3 m × 3 m and 5 m × 3 m (width × height) are examined, while separate tests are conducted for each side of door exposed to fire. In all cases, the test specimens are mounted on appropriate wall frames of aeriated concrete as used in practice. The test results are compared in terms of transient temperature and deflection measurements. Findings reveal that the examined sliding doors exhibit satisfactory fire performance meeting the classification requirements. The overall fire performance is not affected by the width opening of door, while the fire resistance rating is significantly influenced by the side of exposure to fire. Finally, the failure characteristics are discussed, and the fire behavior of sliding doors is evaluated.

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Full-scale tests of A-60 steel and FRD-60 aluminium and FRP bulkheads exposed to fire were carried out in order to compare their respective behaviours in terms of their ultimate load-carrying capacity beyond the prescribed 60 min threshold under thermomechanical loadings. These three materials were chosen as implementation within the SOLAS framework requires documenting a level of robustness equivalent to that of steel. This is a complex process since robustness is not clearly defined and no procedure exists to quantify it. It was found that robustness can be quantified as a time-to-mechanicalfailure and is highly dependent on the fire scenario (load, fire exposure, and boundary conditions).Regulatory codes and design practices were found to disregard specific properties of alternative materials, and only consider one default scenario, which is not representative of a real-life situation. It was concluded that specific properties of alternative materials should be used and equivalence in terms of safety should be documented through performance-based design, for instance risk analyses, instead of forcing requirements originally developed for steel structures on their lightweight counterparts.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to contribute toward providing the main aspects of numerical modeling the fire behavior of steel structures with finite elements (FEs). The application of the method is presented for a characteristic case study comprising the series of large-scale fire door tests performed at the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a general overview of current practices in structural fire engineering, the FE method is used to simulate the large-scale furnace tests on steel doors with thermal insulation exposed to standard fire.FindingsThe FE model is compared with the fire test results, achieving good agreement in terms of developed temperatures and deformations.Originality/valueThe numerical methodology and recommended practices for modeling the fire behavior of steel structures are presented, which can be used in support of performance-based fire design standards.