This paper provides a "state-of-the-art" review of research into the effects of high temperature on concrete and concrete structures, extending to a range of forms of construction, including novel developments. The nature of concrete-based structures means that they generally perform very well in fire. However, concrete is fundamentally a complex material and its properties can change dramatically when exposed to high temperatures. The principal effects of fire on concrete are loss of compressive strength, and spalling - the forcible ejection of material from the surface of a member. Though a lot of information has been gathered on both phenomena, there remains a need for more systematic studies of the effects of thermal exposures. The response to realistic fires of whole concrete structures presents yet greater challenges due to the interactions of structural elements, the impact of complex small-scale phenomena at full scale, and the spatial and temporal variations in exposures, including the cooling phase of the fire. Progress has been made on modeling the thermomechanical behavior but the treatment of detailed behaviors, including hygral effects and spalling, remains a challenge. Furthermore, there is still a severe lack of data from real structures for validation, though some valuable insights may also be gained from study of the performance of concrete structures in real fires. .

A review of research into the burning behavior of large pool fires and fuel spill fires is presented. The features which distinguish such fires from smaller pool fires are mainly associated with the fire dynamics at low source Froude numbers and the radiative interaction with the fire source. In hydrocarbon fires, higher soot levels at increased diameters result in radiation blockage effects around the perimeter of large fire plumes; this yields lower emissive powers and a drastic reduction in the radiative loss fraction; whilst there are simplifying factors with these phenomena, arising from the fact that soot yield can saturate, there are other complications deriving from the intermittency of the behavior, with luminous regions of efficient combustion appearing randomly in the outer surface of the fire according the turbulent fluctuations in the fire plume. Knowledge of the fluid flow instabilities, which lead to the formation of large eddies, is also key to understanding the behavior of large-scale fires. Here modeling tools can be effectively exploited in order to investigate the fluid flow phenomena, including RANS- and LES-based computational fluid dynamics codes. The latter are well-suited to representation of the turbulent motions, but a number of challenges remain with their practical application. Massively-parallel computational resources are likely to be necessary in order to be able to adequately address the complex coupled phenomena to the level of detail that is necessary.