Research into a number of aspects of structural fire engineering has been conducted within the steel structures group. These areas include:

  - Assessment of the rate of temperature development in structural stainless steel cross-sections exposed to fire [1]

- Determination of the degradation of material strength and stiffness at elevated temperatures for cold-formed steel [2]and stainless steel flat products [3] and rebar [4] based on isothermal and anisothermal material testing

- Constitutive modelling at elevated temperatures for stainless steel flat products [3] and rebar [4]

- Testing and finite element simulation of stainless steel columns and beams at elevated temperatures [5], including consideration of the influence of end restraint from surrounding members [6]

- Examination of the fire performance of structural elements heated on three sides, representing their behaviour in wall systems [7]

- Testing and numerical modelling to assess the fire [8] and post-fire [9-11] performance of concrete-filled structural hollow sections, and the development of design rules

 

[1] Gardner, L. and Ng, K. T. (2006). Temperature development in structural stainless steel sections exposed to fire. Fire Safety Journal. 41(3), 185-203. DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2005.11.009

[2] McCann, F., Gardner, L. and Kirk, S. (2015). Elevated temperature material properties of cold-formed steel hollow sections. Thin-Walled Structures. 90, 84-94. DOI: 10.1016/j.tws.2015.01.007

[3] Gardner, L., Insausti, A., Ng, K. T. and Ashraf, M. (2010). Elevated temperature material properties of stainless steel alloys. Journal of Constructional Steel Research. 66(5), 634-647. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcsr.2009.12.016

[4] Gardner, L., Bu, Y., Francis, P., Baddoo, N. R., Cashell, K. A. and McCann, F. (2016). Elevated temperature material properties of stainless steel reinforcing bar. Construction and Building Materials. 114, 977-997. DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.04.009

[5] Ng, K. T. and Gardner, L. (2007). Buckling of stainless steel columns and beams in fire. Engineering Structures. 29(5), 717-730. DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2006.06.014

[6] Gardner, L. (2007). Stainless steel structures in fire.  Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Structures and Buildings. 160(3), 129-138. DOI: 10.1680/stbu.2007.160.3.129

[7] Yang, H., Lui, F. and Gardner, L. (2013). Performance of concrete-filled RHS columns exposed to fire on 3 sides. Engineering Structures. 56, 1986-2004. DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2013.08.019

[8] Espinos, A., Gardner, L., Romero, M. L. and Hospitaler, A. (2011). Fire behaviour of concrete filled elliptical steel columns. Thin-Walled Structures. 49(2), 239-255. DOI: 10.1016/j.tws.2010.10.008

[9] Liu, F., Gardner, L. and Yang, H. (2014). Post-fire behaviour of reinforced concrete stub columns confined by circular steel tubes. Journal of Constructional Steel Research. 102, 82-103. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcsr.2014.06.015

[10] Yang, H., Liu, F., and Gardner, L. (2015). Post-fire behaviour of slender reinforced concrete columns confined by circular steel tubes. Thin-Walled Structures. 87, 12-29. DOI: 10.1016/j.tws.2014.10.014

[11] Liu, F., Yang, H. and Gardner, L. (2016). Post-fire behaviour of eccentrically loaded reinforced concrete columns confined by circular steel tubes. Journal of Constructional Steel Research. 122, 495-510. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcsr.2016.04.008