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Spalling of concrete due to fire exposure can lead to severe damage of building components. It is a much discussed subject in structural engineering and not yet completely understood. Generally, it is assumed that thermohydraulic and thermomechanical processes induce tensile stresses in the concrete. Furthermore, the tensile strength of concrete is reduced due to increasing temperatures. The combination of an increasing tensile stress and a decreasing tensile strength result in the occurrence of explosive spalling. The spalling behaviour of concrete is influenced by many parameters, for instance the water cement ratio, porosity, permeability of concrete as well, the presence of steel reinforcement and polypropylene fibres, also the size and geometry of the fire exposed area. Within the current research project at Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und prüfung (BAM), the susceptibility to spalling of six different concrete mixtures is analysed to quantify the size effect using small scale, intermediate scale and full scale tests. A special fire test setup was built to test specimens simultaneously to enable a better comparability. All specimens are tested without additional mechanical load and unrestraint to prevent external induced cracking at the fire exposed site. Thermocouples are used to measure in situ the temperature distribution as an indication on the thermal degradation of the concrete during the fire tests. Afterwards the maximum spalling depth and the damaged area of the specimen are illustrated by a photogrammetric measurement system. The contribution to the spalling workshop presents the results of four concrete mixtures tested in intermediate-scale and full-scale fire tests. The comparisons are based on the concrete temperature as well as the obtained photogrammetric data. The results show that the spalling depth and the spalling area are significantly affected by the size of the fire exposed area.
Investigating the spalling behaviour of a concrete mixture using large scale members is complex and expensive. Thus, the susceptibility of concrete to spalling is investigated by means of fire tests on small scale specimens. However, the reduction of the fire exposed surface increases the influence of boundary effects. Macrocracking and the water loss via the lateral surfaces reduce the impact of the thermomechanical and thermohydraulic damage mechanisms and therefore, lower the risk of spalling. Thus, the influence of different restraints on the spalling behaviour of intermediate scaled specimens (Ø=0.47 m; h=0.29 m) was investigated for two ordinary concrete mixtures. Both mixtures had the same composition except the type of aggregate. One mixture contained only quartzitic aggregates, whereas the other mixture was made with basalt grit as coarse aggregates. Applied steel rings restrained the thermal expansion of the specimen and prevented the loss of water, whereas applied steel sheet primarily reduced the loss of water during the fire test. Additionally, the fire exposed surface of one specimen of each mixture was pre-dried under controlled climate conditions and fire tested with applied steel rings. The results show a higher spalling volume for the ring restrained specimens compared to the other covering types. Further, the pre-dried boundary zone leads to delayed and decreased occurrence of spalling compared to the non-dried specimens for the concrete with quartzitic aggregates and to a prevention of spalling for the mixture with basalt aggregates. Additionally, the results show that the influence of the thermomechanical behaviour of the coarse aggregates increases with increasing restraint. The restrained conditions of the specimens with applied steel ring are comparable to the conditions in the centre of a large scale member. This test series is a further step for possible concept of steel ring restraint concrete specimens as “screening-tests” in upcoming projects.