The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project is to quantify the influence of fire progression on the fire resistance of steel-framed buildings using a simulation-based approach. In particular, a high-resolution fire model will be coupled to a 3D structural model, and parametric studies will be conducted to assess the performance of a prototype steel-framed building given variations in the compartment geometry and ventilation, the type and distribution of the fuel, the location of fire origin, the structural detailing, and other key parameters. The coupling of a fire model to a structural model requires consideration for the transport of data across disparate temporal and spatial scales, thus necessitating the use of novel heat transfer finite elements, sub-cycling, and data homogenization algorithms to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the simulation. Numerical studies of a prototype building under various fire scenarios will provide new insight into the mechanical actions that develop in buildings under non-stationary fires, enabling improvements in the design process to account for detrimental effects that may be attributed to progressing fires. Based on empirical knowledge in the fire science literature and the trends observed in the numerical simulations, a new design fire model will be proposed to more efficiently capture the fundamental nature of progressing fires in the performance-based design of structures for fire.
This research has the potential to transform the manner in which buildings are designed for fire hazards by paving the way for more realistic representations of fire behavior in the structural simulation. Numerical studies of fires will shed new light on the sources of conservatism and the potential pitfalls in current design practices, resulting in recommendations to improve the safety and economy of building systems threatened by catastrophic fire. While the focus of the research is on fire safety engineering, it is expected that the research will yield advances that may have applications in the broader context of hazard mitigation and multiphysics simulation. The technical research is infused with a rigorous educational and outreach plan that includes mentored undergraduate and graduate research experiences for women and underrepresented students, the creation of a hands-on museum exhibit regarding building fire safety that will be installed in the Michigan Firehouse Museum, educational research to assess the learning outcomes of a newly established international service-learning program at the University of Michigan, and the coordination of an international workshop/symposium that will facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration regarding issues that lie at the fire-structure interface.
