Fire Protection of Steel Beam by OSB Claddings—A Fire Experiment and Numerical Models

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a standard fire resistance test of a loaded steel beam in a horizontal furnace. The beam was tested in three configurations: (1) unprotected, (2) protected with a single 22 mm layer of oriented strand board, and (3) protected with a double layer of the same cladding. The study also describes the development of a model in Fire Dynamics Simulator to predict the thermal conditions in the furnace and to observe the temperature trends on the beam surface, on the cladding, and at various depths in the cladding. A comparison between calculated and measured temperatures showed good agreement for the unprotected beam. However, for the protected beams, the model underestimated temperatures after 15 and 30 min for the single-layer and double-layer protection, respectively. Several potential sources for the discrepancies are identified. The main reason lies probably in the model's inability to correctly account for the effect of gaps in the cladding joints. Future work will focus on improving the accuracy of the model by removing these identified limitations, with particular attention to the behavior of the cladding as a passive fire protection material.