Evaluating the failure load of high-rise reinforced concrete walls under fire loading using the yield design approach
Résumé
The present contribution is addressing the investigation on the failure of high-rise reinforced concrete walls subject to fire loading. In Yang (2018), a 2D plate model has been developed for predicting the deflections and subsequent geometry changes of tall reinforced concrete panels under severe fire exposure. Such a deformed geometry of the wall is a key ingredient to its stability analysis by means of the yield design theory, which is the subject of the present paper. The practical implementation of the approach is based on shell finite elements and a generalized strength criterion accounting for reduced strength capacities of the constitutive materials. For illustrative purposes, numerical simulations based on typical values of input data (geometrical as well as material parameters), are conducted to investigate the sensitivity of the wall stability to the temperature increase on the one hand, and to its geometrical parameters and boundary conditions, on the other hand. One of the main conclusions which can be drawn from the present analysis is that the boundary conditions prescribed along the vertical lateral sides of the wall have a decisive influence on its stability.