Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A computer program for the analysis of steel and composite structures under fire conditions is presented. It is based on the finite element method using beam elements with subdivision of the cross section in a rectangular mesh. The structure submitted to increasing loads or temperatures is analyzed step-by-step using the Newton-Raphson procedure. The thermal problem is solved by a finite difference method based on the heat balance between adjacent elements. Comparisons are made between full scale tests on steel and composite structural elements and frames and the results given by the numerical simulations. The agreement appears to be quite good. Furthermore are discussed the new possibilities given by this numerical computer code.