Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Fire Resistance of Novel Timber-Concrete-Composite Decks

Timber-concrete-composite (TCC) systems, commonly with timber at the bottom and concrete at the top, are efficient solutions for floors because of their advantages compared to pure timber or pure concrete slabs, one of the advantages being better fire resistance. This paper presents experimental and numerical investigations on the fire resistance of a novel TCC setup with timber beams at the top and a concrete layer at the bottom. This setup has several advantages in facilitating the connection to the surrounding structure and mechanical installations. The results from fire tests on a subsection of the system are reported. The concrete side of one test specimen was subjected to a fire according to the standard temperature-time curve and proofed to achieve a 60-min fire rating. Subsequently the temperature behavior was numerically modeled by performing a transient thermal analysis with temperature dependent material properties. The temperature profiles for the TCC system was accurately modeled allowing for the validated model to be used for future optimizations and predicting the fire resistance ratings of optimized systems.