Quantitative Study of Thermal Response of Timber–Concrete Composite Structures Under Traveling Fire Using Energy Equivalence Method

ABSTRACT

The time equivalent method can be used to quantify the fire intensity of a traveling fire into the time of action of the standard fire, which in turn can be used to assess the extent of damage to a structure under a traveling fire. However, an effective time equivalence method for timber structures has not been developed yet. Therefore, this paper proposed an energy‐based time equivalent method, referred to as the “energy equivalence method (EEM)”, for evaluating the fire resistance of timber structures under traveling fire, and validates its effectiveness through a series of fire tests. The results demonstrate that the EEM effectively quantifies the fire intensity endured by glulam under traveling fire as the equivalent exposure time under the standard fire. Furthermore, the EEM was utilized to investigate the damage behavior of a single‐layer Timber‐Concrete Composite (TCC) frame under traveling fire. The results reveal variations in the fire intensity experienced by the structure at different locations under the same traveling fire scenario, with the most severe damage occurring at a position 40% relative to the ignition end. The fire scale determines the non‐uniformity of the fire intensity and the extent of structural damage, as smaller‐scale fires (fire sizes between 10% and 40%) not only result in significant variations in damage levels at different locations but also have a more adverse impact on the structure. In fire safety design, the selection of standard and traveling fire design methods should be based on the fire scale.