Fire performance of concrete flat slabs

A heat map of a structure showing boundary temperatures by colour

Overview

Fire performance of materials and structures is considered as a main criterion that governs the design of a building. With recent improvements to building codes and regulations, it is expected that buildings meet the performance criteria specified by the regulatory bodies. Fire tests can provide direct and indirect methods to meet these safety standards while providing useful information to improve the performance of the material/building element under fire.

Key outcomes

Currently, CAMP.H has advanced instrumentation located at the University of Melbourne  Parkville campus and Creswick campus which have the capability of both material scale and intermediate scale fire testing of building elements.

Following is a list of tests that can be done and detailed descriptions will follow.

Combustibility test

Standard test as specified by AS 1530.1 to determine the combustibility of a material can be conducted.

Thermal imaging

High resolution thermal camera capable of capturing IR images which can be used to monitor specimen surface temperature from −400C to 20000C.

MTS machine equipped with high temperature furnaces

Tensile strength and compressive strength at elevated temperatures can be determined

Radiant panel test1

Components of building facades can be tested under a radiant heat flux of 0–100 kW/m2.

Research team

  • Pasindu Guruge
  • Dr Kate Nguyen
  • Prof Priyan Mendis

Research partners and collaborators

  • Victoria University