A Study on the fire-resistance of concrete-filled steel square tube columns without fire protection under constant central axial loads

This paper presents a plan and guidelines that were drawn for Korean based research carried out on the fire-resistance of CFT columns. This research was carried out by reviewing the Korean regulations related to the fire-resistance of CFT columns and examining studies which had been made in Korea as well as overseas. The first phase of the study plan was to compare the fire-resistance of square CFT columns without fire protection (obtained through fire-resistance tests and numerical analyses) with estimated values (obtained through fire-resistance design formulas proposed in Korea and overseas). This comparison provided conclusions as outlined below. Fire-resistance tests conducted in this study proved that, when the actual design load is taken into consideration, square CFT columns without fire protection are able to resist a fire for more than one hour. A comparison was made of test and analysis results with the fire-resistance time based on the AIJ code, the AISC design formula and the estimation formula suggested for Korea. The results of this comparison showed that the test and analysis results for specimens SAH1, SAH2-1, SAH2-2 and SAH3 were almost identical with the AIJ code, the AISC design formula and estimation formula. For specimens SAH4 and SAH5, the estimation formula was more conservative than the AIJ code and the AISC design formula. It was necessary to identify the factors that have an influence on the fire-resistance of CFT columns without fire protection and to draw fire-resistance design formulas for these columns. To achieve this, it is proposed that numerical analyses and tests be conducted in order to evaluate the fire-resistance of circular CFT columns, the influence of eccentricity existing as an additional factor and the influence of the slenderness ratio of the columns. It is also suggested that the overall behavior of CFT structures without fire protection within a fire be evaluated through analysis simulation.