Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Numerical analyses were carried out to investigate the pore pressure rise in cement mortar walls during fire. The analytical model takes into account of the heat and mass transfer in the material together with the desorption of physically absorbed water and the decomposition of the water of crystallization. The calculated pressure range was in agreements with the previously reported experimental data. By using the model, the sensitivities of permeability, initial water content and the wall thickness were examined. As a result, the maximum pore pressure is very sensitive to permeability, much less sensitive to initial water content and wall thickness. It can be said that the permeability is the controlling factor of the pore pressure rise in cement mortar walls during fire.