Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Tests have been made under standardized furnace conditions to obtain information on the vertical deflections which occur when prestressed concrete floors are subjected to high temperatures, and on the recovery after cooling. The performance of a selected type of composite prestressed concrete floor during and after different heating periods was compared with that of a composite reinforced concrete construction designed for the same span and load conditions. It was found that, whereas far short heating periods, representing a fire of short duration, the maximum and the residual, deflections were of the same order for both types of floor, in the longer beatings prestressed concrete appeared at a disadvantage in this respect.