RESEARCH TOWARD USE OF UNPROTECTED STEEL STRUCTURES

By Y. C. Wang1 and V. K. R. Kodur2

ABSTRACT: When exposed to fire, steel loses stiffness and strength; to limit this loss of strength and stiffness,
external fire protection is provided to the steel structural members to satisfy required fire resistance ratings.
However, the current practice of providing fire protection is based on the behavior of single elements under
idealistic situations; as such, it is conservative and does not represent the realistic fire behavior of real structures.
Recently, there has been a spurt of worldwide research activities aimed at minimizing such fire protection costs.
These studies have mainly focused on understanding the realistic fire behavior of complete structures and on
developing innovative systems with inherent fire resistance. Feasible solutions are now emerging, in which the
external fire protection may be completely removed, in certain situations, without compromising the fire safety
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of steel structures. This paper reviews some of the recent developments in this field and describes one particular
system in some detail. This system uses the conventional composite slab/steel beam flooring system in con-
junction with concrete-filled steel tubular columns. Research studies at the United Kingdoms Building Research
Establishment and the National Research Council of Canada suggest that it might be possible, through proper
design, to eliminate fire protection for steel in this system.

INTRODUCTION measures such as fire detection, fire suppression, smoke man-

Steel structures have traditionally been regarded to possess
low fire resistance. Consequently, the current practice is to
apply external fire protection material to limit the temperature
rise in steel structures, so as to ensure their structural stability
under fire conditions (Fire 1992). Such fire protection mea-
sures add to the cost of this type of construction, reducing the
efficiency and competitiveness of steel.
The current practice of evaluating fire resistance is based on
standard fire tests (International 1975; British 1987; Under-
writers 1989) and has a number of drawbacks. This traditional
approach, based on standard fire tests, of determining struc-
tural fire protection is overly conservative and may not be
realistic, since a number of factors such as continuity, member
interaction, restraint conditions, and load intensity are not ac-
counted for in single element behavior. Further, compartmen-
tation characteristics and location, as well as realistic fire sce-
narios also influence the behavior and eventual failure of a
structure.
While standard fire resistance tests on individual members
are useful benchmarks to establish the relative performance of
different elements under the standard fire condition, they
should not be relied upon to determine the survival time of
real complete buildings under realistic fire scenarios. Nor does
the standard heating condition bear any relation to the often
less severe heating environments encountered in real fires. In-
deed, there is significant evidence, obtained from observations
from fire accidents (Steel 1991) and from some recently com-
pleted large-scale fire tests (Thomas et al. 1992; Fire 1996),
that the fire performance of whole structures is much better
than that of individual members. In addition, fire statistics have
shown that the risk to life in office buildings is very low and
very rarely do fires develop into the postflashover stage when
the stability of the building is threatened.
Thus, there is a trend recently to put these observations into
the framework of a fire safety engineering approach. In its
broadest sense, fire safety engineering means that in the design
of buildings for fire safety, the contributions of all fire safety
1
The Manchester School of Engrg., Univ. of Manchester, Manchester,
U.K.
2
Inst. for Res. in Constr., Nat. Res Council, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Note. Associate Editor: Peter Hoadley. Discussion open until May 1,
2001. To extend the closing date one month, a written request must be
filed with the ASCE Manager of Journals. The manuscript for this paper
was submitted for review and possible publication on August 2, 1999.
This paper is part of the Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. 126,
No. 12, December, 2000. ASCE, ISSN 0733-9445/00/0012-14421450/
$8.00 $.50 per page. Paper No. 21580.
1442 / JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING / DECEMBER 2000
agement, occupant evacuation, and brigade fire fighting should
be taken into account. In the context of this paper, it means
that the assessment of the fire performance of a building struc-
ture should take into consideration its overall behavior under
realistic fire conditions. Current studies focus on the following
three broad areas:
1. To control the design fire size. By properly understand-
ing the behavior of real fires and by taking into account
the contributions of other fire protection measures, such
as fire alarms, sprinklers, and other fire fighting methods,
the design fire may become very small and the resulting
damage to the unprotected steel structural members may
be minimal. Examples of studies in this area include
those by Schleich (1996) and Yung and Benichou (1999).
2. To integrate the structural load-bearing and fire protec-
tion functions. In traditional design practice, fire protec-
tion is generally regarded as an extra finish whose func-
tion is purely to provide fire insulation to steelwork.
Recent developments have seen the integration of struc-
tural load-bearing and fire protection functions whereby
the high load capacity of steel and better fire resistance
of concrete are taken advantage of through composite
construction. A number of practical approaches to
achieve the required fire resistance using composite con-
struction are given by Bailey and Newman (1998). In
particular, concrete-filled columns offer many advantages
such as high fire resistance, high load carrying capacity,
attractive appearance, and fast construction speed (Kodur
and Lie 1995; Kodur and MacKinnon 1998).
3. To utilize the whole building structural behavior. Up to
now, the design of steel structures for fire safety is gen-
erally based on the assessment of individual structural
members; i.e., each structural member should achieve the
required fire resistance. However, it should be realized
that for a building to remain stable under fire conditions,
serving the principal need of containing a fire and pre-
venting its spread, it is not absolutely necessary for every
individual structural member to remain stable. Fire pro-
tection may be eliminated from some steel members if,
in the absence of these members, an alternative load path
can be developed with other undamaged structural mem-
bers. Recent large-scale fire testing experience at the
United Kingdoms Building Research Establishment
(BRE) (Fire 1996) has demonstrated that in composite
floor systems it is possible to eliminate the fire protection
to steel beams.

J. Struct. Eng. 2000.126:1442-1450.

 Results from research show that in the building system that
combines the use of composite slabs supported on concrete-
filled columns, it is possible, in some cases, to eliminate fire
protection. This system also offers other advantages such as
high load carrying capacity, speedy construction, and attractive
appearance. This paper describes the fire performance of a
whole steel structure using composite floor slabs and concrete-
filled columns based on recent research studies on a complete
steel-framed structure carried out at the BRE and on concrete-
filled tubular columns carried out at the National Research
Council of Canada (NRCC).
SCOPE OF RESEARCH
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There has been a concerted effort in Europe to develop a
greater understanding of the natural fire resistance of multi-
story unprotected steel-framed buildings, through experimental
and theoretical studies. To facilitate this investigation, a series
of fire tests were conducted on a full-scale eight story steel-
framed composite building at the BREs Cardington, U.K. lab-
oratory.
Preliminary findings from these tests indicate that for mul-
tistory buildings, with a continuous composite floor system,
fire protection to the supporting steel beams may be eliminated
without compromising the overall safety of the building. How-
ever, these tests also indicate that fire protection may still be
needed for steel columns. On the other hand, studies from the
NRCC show that high fire resistance can be obtained through
concrete filling in steel hollow structural section (HSS) col-
umns. Thus, in a building system that combines the use of the
continuous composite floor system with concrete-filled steel
columns, a practical solution is available that enables the elim-
ination of fire protection of the steel. An overview of research
programs at the BRE and NRCC is presented, and some of
the highlights, in the context of facilitating unprotected steel
in buildings, are discussed.
STUDIES ON OVERALL STRUCTURAL RESPONSE
Background
Detailed studies of severe fires in buildings in the United
Kingdom and other parts of the world show that complete steel
structures, as opposed to single elements, have high resistance
to failure under fire conditions. This has been noticed in a
number of realistic fires that occurred in buildings. The next
two such actual fire incidents illustrate that steel structures
have higher fire resistance because of the overall structural
behavior, compared to the design fire resistance based on sin-
gle elements.
A severe fire occurred in the 14-story Churchill Plaza of-
fice building at Basingstoke, U.K. in 1991, resulting in
the eighth and ninth floors and part of the tenth floor being
completely burned out. High winds caused the fire to
jump from one floor to the next through the windows on
the sheltered side of the building. The steel structure had
been protected to a 90-min structural fire resistance rating.
Although the loss incurred was over 15,000,000 the
load-bearing frame survived undamaged and no structural
repairs were necessary.
A major fire occurred in a 14-story building under con-
struction in Broadgate, U.K. in 1990 (Steel 1991). The
severe fire, which lasted over 4 1/2 h, occurred when the
building contractors accommodation on the first floor
level, which had been erected around the steel columns
at that level, caught fire. The columns of the building,
which passed through the contractors accommodation
and the heart of the fire, had not been fire protected. The
JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING / DECEMBER 2000 / 1443
J. Struct. Eng. 2000.126:1442-1450.
building contractors accommodation was completely de-
stroyed, but the steel frame survived the fire without a
collapse. During the fire, the heavier columns survived
undamaged and the lighter columns deformed in the heat
and contracted by as much as 100 mm. This behavior of
the steel frame could be attributed to the continuity of the
structure; as soon as plastic deformation occurred in the
failed columns (local failure), their loads were redistrib-
uted to other cooler members and the structure as a whole
survived without a collapse. The structure was repaired in
30 days at a cost less than 4% of the total repair cost and
no lives were lost.
The above illustrations clearly demonstrate that the whole
structure can behave quite differently than indicated by current
predictions based on relatively small-scale laboratory tests.
The fire resistance of the overall structure can be much greater
than that of an individual structural member. Factors such as
structural continuity largely contribute, in a fire situation, to
either an improvement of the fire resistance or an enhancement
of the load bearing resistance. A complete collapse, therefore,
may not occur.
BRE Test Program
The above fire accidents sparked interest in the study of fire
performance of complete steel structures. In particular, the
Broadgate fire accident involving the unprotected steel struc-
ture became the catalyst of the BREs research program of
large-scale fire tests (Fire 1996). Although there had been
some experimental investigations using structural assemblies
(Cooke and Latham 1987; Rubert and Schaumann 1986) prior
to the BREs research, these small-scale structural assemblies
could not simulate the many complicated structural interac-
tions, such as floor-slabs interactions, alternate load paths, and
contributions from nonstructural members, that occur in a
complete structure.
To generate data on the behavior of overall steel structures,
the BRE has recently completed at Cardington a series of full-
scale fire tests in its Large Building Test Facility (LBTF), on
an eight story steel-framed building. This LBTF, converted
from an airship hangar, provides a large protected test envi-
ronment in which full-scale tests could be carried out without
interruption and under controlled test conditions to give reli-
able and high-quality test data (Armer and Moore 1994). This
rigorous test program is designed to provide unique data on
how steel frames react to localized fires, enabling engineers to
carry out much more accurate analyses of how much fire pro-
tection is needed in future buildings. The overall objective of
the test program is to monitor the behavior of both the struc-
tural and the nonstructural elements within a real compartment
subject to a real fire.
The specific objectives of the project may be summarized
as follows:
1. To understand the true behavior of complete steel framed
structures under realistic fire scenarios, and to demon-
strate their inherent fire resistance
2. To provide quality experimental data for the validation
and development of various numerical procedures for the
analysis of the behavior of steel-framed structures under
fire conditions
3. To develop design guidance, based upon validated com-
puter models, for the effective use of steel-framed struc-
tures to minimize the likelihood of collapse in fire
4. To contribute toward the development of a risk assess-
ment based natural fire safety philosophy for steel-
framed buildings
 A total of eight full-scale fire tests were carried out on the
steel-framed building. Of these tests, the corner test pro-
vided the most significant information on the overall response
of the unprotected steelwork in terms of its most severe dam-
age. Hence, full details of this corner test, together with im-
portant findings, are discussed in this paper. Only main high-
lights from the other seven tests are given.
Test Building and Corner Test
A purpose-built steel-framed building (Fig. 1), representa-
tive of a modern office block in central London, was built
within the LBTF at Cardington. The building is eight stories
in height (8 4.2 = 33.6 m) and is five bays long (5 9 =
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FIG. 1. Steel-Framed Building at Cardington
FIG. 2. Location for Corner Fire Test
1444 / JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING / DECEMBER 2000
J. Struct. Eng. 2000.126:1442-1450.
45 m) by three bays wide (6 9 6 = 21 m), with a rec-
tangular area of approximately 945 m2. The building was de-
signed as a no-sway structure with a central lift shaft and two
staircases providing the necessary resistance to lateral wind
loads. The main steel frame was designed for gravity loads
and the connections were designed to transmit vertical shear
only. All structural components were designed to the most up-
to-date European standards.
The floor construction was a steel deck and lightweight in
situ concrete composite slab, supported on a grid of steel
beams and incorporating an anticrack mesh of 142 mm2/m in
both directions. The floor slab had an overall depth of 130 mm
and the steel decking had a trough depth of 60 mm. Columns
were made from conventional H-profiled hot-rolled British
Steel sections.
The corner fire test was carried out in one corner of the test
building, enclosing an area of 6 m by 9 m in plan, as indicated
in Fig. 2. In this test, the fire representing a realistic, but worst
case, fire scenario was provided with 40 kg/m2 of wooden
cribs of the floor area. The presence of sprinklers was not
considered in any of the tests, to reflect the worst-case sce-
nario. A double glazing window, 2.5 m high along the 9 m
wall, was initially sealed before the fire started. The static
loading included a self weight of about 2.4 kN/m2, and an
imposed load of about 2.5 kN/m2, simulated using 12 sand-
bags, each weighing 11 kN.
All steel beams were unprotected and all columns were pro-
tected. The column fire protection was considered necessary
after the observation of a previous fire test, carried out in a
narrow enclosure of 2 m wide but covering the whole depth
of 21 m of the one floor. In that test, the columns enclosed in
the fire testing area were only protected to the assumed false
ceiling height, leaving a short length of about 400 mm unpro-
tected. After the fire test, it was observed that this short length
of unprotected steel was completely squashed. Although the
steel frame was still stable, the fire damage due to the squashed
column length extended to all of the floors above the test en-
closure and to the two adjacent bays of 18 m. To prevent
excessive fire damage, a decision was made to protect all of
the columns to the full height in subsequent fire tests.
Preliminary Findings
Results from the large-scale fire test program revealed a
number of phenomena that would not be observed from fire
tests on individual elements under the standard fire exposure.
 From the results of the BRE corner fire test, the following
observations are worthy of further discussion.
Fire Resistance of Complete Structure
The fire in the BRE corner test was severe, maintaining a
temperature of about 1,000C for about 20 min. The maximum
deflection in the floor reached a value of 250 mm. However,
there was no sign of structural failure. Because the columns
were protected, structural damage was restricted to the fire
testing area.
fire behavior of flashover. Fig. 3 presents the temperature-time
relationships recorded in the test compartment at a number of
positions. It clearly shows the two local peaks in the early
stage of the fire test when the standby fire brigade broke the
window to let more air in.
It would appear to be possible to limit fire growth to the
preflashover stage by using sufficiently strong windows. If this
could be done, the structural damage would be minimal, even
in cases where there is not sufficient fire protection.
Behavior of Steel Beams

Fire Behavior All of the beams in this fire test were unprotected. Numer-
ical simulations based on the most favorable boundary con-
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In the corner fire test, the double glazing window was ini-
tially sealed when the fire was ignited. After some growth, as
indicated by the fire temperature rise in Fig. 3, the fire started
to die down due to the lack of oxygen. It was only after the
standby fire brigade was asked to break the window twice that
the fire had sufficient oxygen to grow, leading to the expected
dition (assuming full continuity between beam and column
connections) indicated that the secondary beam would have
experienced failure at a temperature of about 750C. In the
test, the secondary beam was completely engulfed in the fire
and reached a temperature in excess of 900C. However, not
only did the beam not fail, as can be seen in Fig. 4, which

FIG. 3. Temperatures as Function of Time in Corner Fire Test

FIG. 4. Deflection as Function of Temperature of Slabs in Corner Fire Test

JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING / DECEMBER 2000 / 1445

J. Struct. Eng. 2000.126:1442-1450.

 shows the deflection-temperature relationship for the beam,
but there was no indication of any sign of imminent structural
failure. In fact, the almost linear relationship in Fig. 4 seems
to indicate that the floor system did not even lose much stiff-
ness.
Slab Behavior
To explain the observed behavior of steel beams, calcula-
tions were carried out using the conventional bending theory.
At 900C, the strength and stiffness of the composite beam
were reduced to less than 10% of their original values at the
ambient temperature condition. Therefore, the observed beam
behavior could not be sustained if the steel beam was assumed
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to support the composite slabs under the fire condition. The
observed behavior is possible only when the slab was holding
the weakened steel beam and directly transferring the applied
load to the columns. However, calculations using the upper-
bound yield-line analysis suggested that the bending capacity
of the slab was much lower than the applied load. Thus, the
observed beam/slab behavior could not be explained by con-
ventional bending theory (related to small deflections).
Tensile Membrane Action in Composite Slab
To explain the above behavior, an alternative load carrying
mechanism was thought to be active under the fire conditions
and it was identified as the tensile membrane action in the
composite slab. This mechanism occurs under large slab de-
flections, in which the tensile reinforcement acts as a net to
resist the applied load. While it is easy to envisage this load
carrying mechanism when the slab is securely connected to
the surrounding structure, it becomes somewhat more difficult
when the composite slab becomes simply supported, as would
FIG. 5. Tensile Membrane Action Mechanism
FIG. 6. Deflections as Function of Temperature in Edge Beam
1446 / JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING / DECEMBER 2000
J. Struct. Eng. 2000.126:1442-1450.
be the case when the slab was in the corner of a room. That
tensile membrane action is possible in simply supported slabs
is due to the formation of a compressive ring beam in the
composite slab. Such a ring beam is illustrated in Fig. 5; it is
this compressive ring beam that is balancing the tensile forces
in the reinforcement net, and the combined mechanism then
resists the applied load. Failure of the slab does not occur until
the reinforcement bars fracture at very large strains.
Wood (1961) and Kemp (1967) provided comprehensive
analyses of tensile membrane action in simply supported cir-
cular and square slabs, respectively. Wang (1996) extended
Kemps theory to simply supported rectangular slabs and dem-
onstrated that the tensile membrane action theory provided an
accurate description of the observed slab behavior during the
fire test. The tensile membrane action mechanism was found
to offer a credible explanation (Wang 1996, 1997) for the phe-
nomenon observed during this fire test. However, for this ef-
fect to be reliably predicted, further tests on simply supported
reinforced concrete slabs are being carried out to confirm the
formation of this compressive ring beam.
Contribution from Nonstructural Members
The 9 m edge beams on the adjacent floors were linked
together by two small posts at the two 1/3 positions. The func-
tion of these wind posts was to secure the non-load-bearing
walls and windows under the lateral wind load. They were not
designed to contribute to the load carrying capacity of the
beam, and the beam was designed as simply supported with a
9 m span. However, observed behavior suggested that these
nonstructural members made a significant contribution to the
survival of the edge beam during the fire attack. Fig. 6 shows
the recorded maximum deflectiontemperature relationship for
the edge beam. Very little vertical deflection was observed,
and this was attributed to the restraint offered by these wind
posts. In fact, the edge beam may be regarded as a three-span
continuous beam.
Observations for Other Tests
Various aspects of the corner fire test behavior were also
observed in a number of other tests; most important, the steel
structure was stable after each large-scale fire test. Since the
conditions of the other tests were different from those of the
BRE corner fire test, some additional phenomena were also
 observed. Among them, the following are particularly relevant
to the use of unprotected steel structures.
Column Stability
British Steel carried out the so-called plane frame test
(Fire 1996). In this test, a narrow test enclosure was con-
structed around all four columns along the entire width of 21
m of the building on one floor. This was thought to represent
a 2D structure, and the purpose of this test was to provide test
information to check the accuracy of the predictions of various
computer programs for 2D behavior. All of the enclosed steel
beams were unprotected. The enclosed columns were pro-
tected, but only to the level of the assumed false ceiling, leav-
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ing a short length of about 400 mm unprotected. When the
test was completed, it was observed that the short length of
the unprotected columns was completed squashed. This short-
ening of the columns extended the fire damage much beyond
the narrow test enclosure to two complete bays. It also brought
down all of the floors above the test enclosure by almost the
same amount of deflection at the column grid line. Although
the steel structure was still stable after this fire test, the fire
damage was disproportionally excessive to the cause. In real-
ity, the entire two bays of the building would have to be re-
placed. The damage from this testing exceeded the expecta-
tions; however, this test provided an important finding
concerning the behavior of the whole structure under fire con-
ditions. The conclusion from this test is that in order to limit
fire damage to the areas immediate to the fire, columns should
remain stable. For the conventional H-profiled steel columns,
external fire protection should be applied. If fire protection is
to be completely eliminated from the steel structure, an alter-
native column system with high inherent fire resistance should
be used.
Building Integrity
In fire resistant design, not only should a structure remain
stable under the fire condition, but it should also prevent fire
spread by other means. One condition is that the structure
should satisfy the integrity condition so that fire does not
spread by opening through any structural member. Due to the
large scale of these fire tests, large deflections and rotations
were observed. Although the steel structure remained stable
after each fire test, integrity failure was observed in one test
(Fire 1996). In this test, the slab corner rotation was so high
that it detached from the column, creating an opening to allow
smoke to spread to the floor above. However, this integrity
failure could have been avoided if the anticrack mesh had been
passed around the column to ensure better anchorage of the
slab to the column.
Numerical Studies
In the United Kingdom and Europe, various advanced mod-
els (Wang and Moore 1995; Bailey et al. 1996) of structural
analysis have been developed to study the behavior of steel-
framed buildings under fire conditions. These models have
been used to conduct various theoretical studies to contribute
to the development of a rational fire safety design approach
for steel-framed buildings. However, these models have only
been validated against test results on isolated structural mem-
bers. To build confidence in their ability to predict the perfor-
mance of complete structures under fire conditions, the pre-
dictions from these models are now being compared against
the results from the large-scale fire tests at Cardington.
These theoretical studies have identified a number of fea-
tures that should be included in numerical modeling so that
the whole building behavior may be predicted accurately. They
J. Struct. Eng. 2000.126:1442-1450.
include the local and lateral torsional buckling of steel beams
due to restrained thermal expansion, connection fracture under
cooling, contribution from the steel decking, and the large dis-
placement effect of the composite slab. Nevertheless, it has
been accepted that, by far, the most important parameter con-
tributing to the fire resistance of the whole steel building is
the large deflection behavior of the composite slabs. It is cru-
cial that this aspect of the whole building behavior should be
clearly understood.
Very early on, the BRE found the tensile membrane action
to contribute significantly to the load carrying capacity of the
floor slab and to the overall safety of the building. Theoretical
models (Wang 1996, 1997) are being developed to study ten-
sile membrane action to calculate the collapse loads of rein-
forced-composite slabs, and have shown quite promising re-
sults. In particular, theoretical results for the Cardington
building indicate that even without the steel beams and the
steel decking, the collapse loads of the reinforced-concrete
floor slabs were much higher than the applied load and also
confirmed the recorded stable structural behavior. Experi-
mental studies are now being carried out to gain better under-
standing of tensile membrane action in reinforced-concrete
slabs under increasingly applied loads. These experimental
studies will provide a basis to modify the theoretical models
to allow the tensile membrane action to be more reliably pre-
dicted.
Design Implications
Although extensive theoretical studies and more targeted
small-scale demonstration tests are necessary before the results
of the Cardington large-scale fire tests can be translated into
reliable design guidance, two clear messages emerge from this
large-scale structural fire testing program. They are as follows:
1. Even though the supporting steel beams may lose most
of their strength, the conventional composite floor slab
system can still have sufficient load carrying capacity to
sustain and to directly distribute the applied load to the
columns. As the role of steel beams in the load bearing
function is minimal, at elevated temperatures it may not
be necessary to fire protect them.
2. The stability of the columns is vital. They are not only
necessary to ensure structural stability, but also to restrict
the structural damage to the area local to the fire affected
enclosure. Results from the Cardington tests suggest that
columns made from the conventional H-profiled steel
sections would need to be properly protected to remain
stable. Thus, to have a completely unprotected steel
structure, it is necessary to replace the H-profiled steel
columns with other forms. One option is to use concrete-
filled steel tubular columns.
STUDIES ON CONCRETE-FILLED COLUMNS
Recent research at the NRCC on concrete-filled steel col-
umns complements, to some extent, European studies in fa-
cilitating the fully unprotected steel structures. The studies at
NRCC were mainly focused on steel HSS, and the main aim
was to develop unprotected steel columns to obtain fire resis-
tance as long as 3 h. Both experimental and theoretical studies,
using computer models, were carried out to investigate the
influence of concrete filling on the fire resistance and load
capacity of HSS columns.
NRCC Studies
Steel HSS columns are very efficient structurally in resisting
compression loads, and are widely used in the construction of
JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING / DECEMBER 2000 / 1447
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FIG. 7. Unprotected Concrete-Filled Steel Column in Building
framed structures in buildings. Such columns, often filled with
concrete, provide numerous advantages, which include high
load-carrying capacity, fast construction, small cross section,
and high fire resistance. When properly designed, concrete-
filled steel columns may not require externally applied fire
protection, which results in an enhanced appearance of the
exposed steelwork (Fig. 7).
The NRCC experimental program consisted of fire tests on
full-scale concrete-filled HSS columns (Kodur and Lie 1995).
Both square and circular columns were tested, and the influ-
ence of various factors, including type of filling [plain concrete
(PC), bar-reinforced concrete (RC), and steel fiber-reinforced
concrete (FC)], concrete strength, type and intensity of load-
ing, and column dimensions, was investigated. During a test,
the column was exposed, under a load, to heating controlled
in such a way that the average temperature in the furnace
followed, as closely as possible, the North American standard
temperature-time curve (Standard 1990). The furnace, con-
crete and steel temperatures, and axial deformations and ro-
tations were recorded until failure of the column occurred.
The test data were used to validate the computer programs
that were developed for predicting the fire behavior of con-
crete-filled steel columns (Kodur and Lie 1996). These pro-
grams can take into account the influence of the various pa-
rameters that determine the fire resistance performance of
concrete-filled HSS columns.
Effect of Concrete Filling
Results from the studies (Lie and Kodur 1996) showed that,
at room temperature, the load on a concrete-filled HSS column
is carried by both the concrete and the steel. When the column
is exposed to fire, however, the steel carries most of the load
during the early stages, since the steel section expands more
rapidly than the concrete core. At increased temperatures, the
steel section gradually yields as its strength decreases, and the
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J. Struct. Eng. 2000.126:1442-1450.
FIG. 8. Axial Deformation as Function of Time for Three Con-
crete-Filled Steel Columns
column rapidly contracts between 20 and 30 min after initial
fire exposure. At this stage, the concrete filling starts to take
over and carries a progressively increasing portion of the load
as the temperature rises. The strength of the concrete decreases
with time, and ultimately, when the column can no longer
support the load, failure occurs. The elapsed time that it takes
for the column to fail is the measure of its fire resistance. The
performance of three types of concrete-filled steel columns is
compared through the variation of axial deformation with time,
as obtained from fire tests, in Fig. 8 (Kodur and Lie 1995).
Results also indicate that the fire resistance of PC-filled HSS
columns is about 12 h, as compared to about 15 min for
unprotected, unfilled steel columns. For RC-filled columns and
FC-filled columns, a fire resistance as high as 3 h is possible.
Filling the column with plain concrete, without steel rein-
forcement, offers the most economical option from the point
of view of fire resistance. However, in some cases, especially
when the columns are large (323 mm or more), PC-filled steel
columns fail at relatively low loads when exposed to fire.
In bar-reinforced concrete-filled HSS columns, the presence
of rebars not only decreases the propagation of cracks in the
concrete and the corresponding sudden loss of strength, but
also contributes to the load-carrying capacity of the concrete
core. The fire resistance of these columns is significantly
greater, but additional cost is involved (the cost of rebars and
their installation in the column).
Results showed that the use of concrete with steel fibers in
HSS columns prevented early cracking and resulted in fire
resistance values that were comparable to those achieved with
RC filling. The load-carrying capacity of the columns was also
increased, to a certain degree, compared to the PC filling. This
can be attributed to the fact that the compressive strength of
fiber-reinforced concrete increases with temperature up to
about 400C. The additional cost of FC-filled columns, over
the cost of concrete, is only in the cost of the steel fibers.
Design Implications
Concrete filling offers a practical solution for providing fire
protection to steel HSS columns without any external protec-
tion. Results from the experimental and numerical studies in-
dicate that any amount of fire resistance, in the practical range
for building construction, can be obtained for HSS columns
through three types of concrete filling. To calculate the opti-
mum fire resistance in any given situation, simplified equations
were developed for evaluating the fire resistance of concrete-
filled HSS columns. Data from the tests and the computer-
simulated parametric studies were used to develop a simple
equation for calculating the fire resistance of circular and

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FIG. 9. Fire Resistance for Three Types of Concrete-Filled
Steel Columns
square HSS columns filled with any of the three types of con-
crete (Kodur 1999). It was possible to express the fire resis-
tance of these columns, as a function of the parameters that
determine it, by a unified equation
R=f
( f c 20)
(KL 1,000)
D2 D
C
(1)
where R = fire resistance (min); f c = specified 28-day concrete
strength (MPa); D = outside diameter or width of the column
(mm); C = applied load (kN); K = effective length factor as
per the CAN/CSA S16.1 M89 standard (Canadian 1989); L =
unsupported length of the column (mm); and f = parameter to
account for the type of concrete filling (PC, RC, and FC), the
type of aggregate used (carbonate or siliceous), the percentage
of reinforcement, the thickness of concrete cover, and the
cross-sectional shape of the HSS column (circular or square).
The values of parameter f, and the limits of applicability for
the various parameters for the above equation are given by
Kodur (1999). The above equation can be used to generate
alternate fire resistance solutions for concrete-filled steel col-
umns. This is illustrated in Fig. 9 for three concrete-filled steel
columns. Using (1), HSS columns can be designed for 13 h
of fire resistance by varying parameters such as the type of
concrete filling, load, and size. The use of the above fire re-
sistance design equation leads to an optimum design that is
not only economical, but also based on rational design prin-
ciples. Further, it facilitates completely unprotected steel-frame
building.
FUTURE TRENDS
The current research in Europe and other parts of the world
is focused on assessing the overall structural behavior, when
exposed to fire, which is different from the current practice of
evaluating the performance based on single element behavior.
Such an approach is expected to increase the fire resistance of
structures, leading to the possible use of unprotected steel
structures. While in some cases it may not be possible to com-
pletely remove the protection, the availability of methods such
as the use of concrete filling will definitely facilitate the pos-
sibility of obtaining unprotected steel structures. Based on the
current knowledge, the combined use of composite floors sup-
ported on concrete-filled steel tubular columns represents a
feasible approach in the use of unprotected steelwork in steel-
frame multistory buildings.
The research currently under way in various countries will
lead to the development of validated computer models and
simplified design tools for evaluating the fire resistance based
on the realistic behavior of whole buildings. This exercise re-
JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING / DECEMBER 2000 / 1449
J. Struct. Eng. 2000.126:1442-1450.
quires significant effort, since all of the factors that are ben-
eficial are to be accounted for so as to obtain maximum fire
resistance inherent in the building systems.
Validated computer models for evaluating the fire resistance
will be highly useful. Using this approach, the fire resistance
design can be carried out entirely on a rational basis and cost-
effective measures can be derived in a consistent manner. Fur-
ther, using such tools, engineers can design the most econom-
ical structural members, with the required fire resistance,
simply by varying the various design parameters. The fire re-
sistance design can also be conveniently integrated with struc-
tural design.
The move, by many countries, toward performance-based
design codes is expected to accelerate the development and
acceptance of such calculation methods for assessing fire re-
sistance. This will help in the use of unprotected steel, thus
improving the cost-effectiveness of steel structures.
However, before the computer models can be confidently
used and the proposed unprotected building system becomes
a reality, a number of technical problems need to be thor-
oughly researched. They include the following:
1. Detailed study of large-deflection behavior of reinforced-
concrete slabs. In the event of the supporting beams los-
ing their load carrying capacity, the large-deflection slab
behavior has been identified to directly transfer the loads
to the supporting columns. To reliably predict this be-
havior, extensive tests are required to investigate the in-
fluence of many of the parameters.
2. Studies of the performance of connections between steel
beams and concrete-filled tubular columns. The current
methods to provide beam-column connections for pro-
filed steel members have evolved over many years and
are well accepted. A number of methods to provide steel
beams to steel tubular columns are available. Studies
should be carried out to assess their cost-effectiveness
and their behavior under fire conditions.
3. Investigation of methods to improve the reinforcement
detailing practice. Unprotected steel structures are likely
to undergo large deflections and rotations under fire con-
ditions. To prevent these large deflections and rotations
from causing integrity failure of the building, slabs
should be securely attached to columns. This could be
done by passing the reinforcement around the columns.
Investigations are needed to assess the practical impli-
cations of this requirement.
4. Validation of theoretical models. The results from the
large-scale structural fire tests at Cardington provide in-
valuable information on how whole steel structures be-
have under fire conditions. However, many more studies
will be required for the development of practical design
guidance. These can only be provided by carrying out
extensive numerical studies. Thus, validation of various
theoretical models is vital if the full benefits of overall
structural behavior, as seen in the Cardington fire tests,
are to be realized in practice to facilitate the use of un-
protected steel.
5. Development of design guidance. Current design guid-
ance has been developed on the basis of fire test results
of individual structural members. Future design guidance
should take into consideration the implications of fire
resistant design for the whole building system, rather
than merely refine the design rules for individual struc-
tural members.
Many aspects of these studies are being addressed by dif-
ferent groups, and it is expected that interim design guidance
will be available in three to five years.
 SUMMARY
A review of the state of the art of the performance of steel-
framed buildings under fire conditions, emphasizing recent re-
search initiatives leading to the use of unprotected steelwork
in multistory steel-framed buildings, is presented. In particular,
this paper describes in some detail the findings of two such
research programs at the BRE and at the NRCC. The BRE
program deals with the overall behavior of steel structures un-
der realistic fire conditions, while the NRCC program is aimed
at understanding the fire behavior of concrete-filled steel tu-
bular columns.
Preliminary findings from the BREs study on whole build-
ing fire performance confirm that the fire resistance of a com-
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plete building is significantly higher than that of individual
steel members. Test data also indicate that in certain situations,
it is possible to use unprotected steel beams in steel-framed
buildings. However, the stability of columns is critical to en-
sure the buildings structural safety and to restrict the extent
of fire damage.
The use of concrete-filled steel columns offers a practical
solution for facilitating completely unprotected steel-framed
building. Using this method, fire resistance in the practical
range of up to 3 h can be obtained through any one of the
three types of concrete filling.
Thus, through the use of conventional composite floor slabs
and concrete-filled steel tubular columns, fire protection to
steel might be eliminated in certain situations. However, to
make this system acceptable in practice, further research is
required to resolve a number of technical issues.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper is written as a result of the collaboration between the two
writers, supported by a North Atlantic Treaty Organization collaborative
research grant (CRG 961179). The first writer of this paper thanks his
former colleagues at the United Kingdoms Building Research Establish-
ment for providing an opportunity to participate in the innovative Car-
dington research project. The opinions expressed in this paper are the
writers own and do not necessarily represent those of their past or current
employers.
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