Analysis Of Needs And Existing Capabilities For Full Scale Fire Resistance Testing

The study was commissioned to analyze the needs and existing capabiliites for full-scale fire resistance testing of structural connections. The scope of work consisted of three separate tasks. Task 1. Identification of building collapse incidents: The objective of this Task was to conduct a survey of historical information of fire occurences in multi-story (defined as four or more stories) buildings, which resulted in structural collapse. Either partial or total failure of the structural framing members, and/or connections was considered to hav constituted a collapse. Task 2. Survey of fire resistence test facilities: The objective of this task was to survey private and public facilities (for-profit, not-for-profit; academic, local, state and federal government; military and civilian; domestic and international) capable of testing structural integrity of building elements under fire conditions to establish the current global research capabilities in structural fire protection. Task 3. Needs assessment: the objective of this task was to perform an assessment of the need for additional testing and/or experimental facilities to support the development of predictive structural fire protection methods within actual buildings; and if a need does exist, options for meeting those needs.