SCI co-ordinates European research project on stainless steel in fire

Work has been successfully completed on this 3½year European research project studying the behaviour of structural stainless steel in fire.

Stainless steel columns and beams generally retain their load-bearing capacity for a longer time than equivalent carbon steel columns.  In an attempt to develop more comprehensive and economic design guidance, the Stainless Steel in Fire project started in 2004, funded by the European Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) and stainless steel producers.  The final report of the project will be presented to the RFCS in May 2008. 

Stainless steel in buildings is almost always exposed, so the Stainless Steel in Fire project aimed to identify structural solutions which give a specified period of fire resistance without any fire protection applied to the surface of the steel.  Benefits of eliminating fire protection include lower construction costs, shorter construction time, more effective use of the internal floor area and more attractive appearance.  The project included tests on materials, members and connections, numerical analysis and development of design guidance aligned to European design standards.  The scope of the work was limited to austenitic grades as these exhibit the most promising behaviour at high temperature.  The topics studied were:

• Load-bearing and separating elements with 30 and 60 minutes fire resistance;
• Concrete filled hollow sections in fire;
• Hybrid stainless-carbon steel composite floor beams in fire;
• Slender hollow sections in fire;
• Strength and stiffness retention of grades not previously studied;
• Welded and bolted connections in fire;
• Behaviour of external stainless steel columns and stainless steel columns in open car parks subject to realistic fire loads.

The online Eurocode design software for cold formed stainless steel sections has also been extended to include a fire resistance module.  It can be accessed at www.steel-stainless.org/software

SCI co-ordinated this project and the partners were CTICM, CSM, Outokumpu Stainless, University of Hannover, VTT, SBI and ArcelorMittal Stainless.

For further information, please contact:

Nancy Baddoo
Manager Materials
Email: n.baddoo@steel-sci.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1344 636547