With regard to reaction-to-fire tests for building materials in Japan, ISO 5660-1 (small-scale test cone calorimeter) is de facto the only method for evaluation, according to the current building standard law of Japan [1], which actually also designates ISO/ TS 17431 (intermediate-scale test) as analternative not being implemented very often, however, bythe industry. It is noted that it is impossible to predict the fire performance of sandwich panels when they are actually used in real buildings only from small scale tests such as ISO 5660-1. This is not a deficiency regarding the ISO 5660-1 as a test method but it is difficult to use the small scale results on a horizontal surface (100 mm by 100 mm) in order to predict the fire performance of sandwich panels in real applications.. The reason is that in actual building fires, both ceilings and walls made of sandwich panels are heated from various directions and weak points are the joints and seals which can never be evaluated with a small-scale test. Therefore, in this study, the authors firstly modified ISO/TS 17431 model box test with free-standing specimens, referring to ISO 13784-1, and different types of sandwich panels were chosen to be the specimens, and the results are discussed comparing with ISO 5660-1 results.

Some experimental studies have been conducted on structural fire behaviour of steel sub-frames in order to investigate the effects of thermal stress due to the axial restraint from columns to a heated beam on the behaviour of connections, and its influences on the connected beam and robustness of steel frames. However, the object connections were not beam-to-beam connections but beam-to-column connections with fin plates, end plates, and web cleats. This paper discusses, on the basis of experimental results, structural fire behaviour of a rigid steel frame with fully-moment-resisting beam-to-beam connections with splice plates and HSFG bolts, and beam-to-column connections with full penetration welds. The structural behaviour in the test was also analysed with finite element analysis using Bernoulli-Euler beam elements. The test results indicated that the moment-resisting connections in the rigid steel frame have sufficient load-carrying capacity, but failure may occur in the connected beam due to inadequate shear resistance of the beam web in fire. The critical temperature of the steel beam could be approximated on the basis of its inherent resistance at elevated temperature and initial effects, because the thermal stress disappeared at the fire limit stage. This study was also intended to provide experimental data to help understand the fundamental behaviour of rigid steel frames in fire.

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This paper discusses, on the basis of experimental results, structural fire behaviour of a rigid steel frame with fully-moment-resisting beam-to-beam connections with splice plates and high strength bolts, and beam-to-column connections with full penetration welds. The test results indicated that the moment-resisting connections in the rigid steel frame have sufficient load-carrying capacity, but failure may occur in the connected beam due to inadequate shear resistance of the beam web in fire. The critical temperature of the steel beam could be approximated on the basis of its inherent resistance at elevated temperature and initial effects, because the thermal stress disappeared at the fire limit stage. In this study, the safety factor of structural fire safety design was also discussed on the basis of the result of these load-bearing fire tests.

Current Building Standard Law of Japan estimates fire toxicity of building material in case of fire by gas toxicity test using mice. Because it is an animal test, some problems are identified such as the impossibility of quantitative analysis, and from ethical viewpoints. Gas analysis method is needed as an alternative. In this research, authors report FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) analysis of gases generated from building materials using gas toxicity test equipment and a tube furnace. The possibility of replacing animal test with FTIR gas analysis test was discussed.