Fire Impact and Passive Fire Protection of Infrastructure: State of the Art
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 27, Issue 2
Abstract
Built infrastructure in the United States is generally susceptible to damage or collapse if subjected to severe fire conditions, such as those associated with the burning of a fully loaded gasoline tanker truck. Because of the importance and heavy use of transportation systems within the United States, it is critical that susceptibilities to fire damage are investigated and mitigated to reduce the potential for substantial life-safety and economic losses. The need for infrastructure fire protection is heightened by the frequency of collapse of infrastructure components (e.g., bridge superstructures) as part of severe fire incidents. However, fire protection of infrastructure remains a developing area. Presented in this paper is the state of the art in passive fire protection of transportation structures. More specifically, the impacts of high-intensity fires on existing infrastructure and commonly used structural materials are reviewed. Additionally, design standards that provide means of assessing fire safety levels for passively protected transportation structures are reviewed, and the capabilities of existing fire protection materials available for use in transportation structures are assessed. Given the diverse nature of transportation structures located within the United States, this paper is organized such that state-of-the-art fire safety aspects are emphasized for two major types of transportation systems, namely, tunnels and bridges.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the National Institute for Hometown Security (the NIHS) under contract 2010-0222 and the Department of Homeland Security for providing the financial support that made this study possible.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 27 • Issue 2 • April 2013
Pages: 135 - 143
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 20, 2011
Accepted: Oct 7, 2011
Published online: Oct 10, 2011
Published in print: Apr 1, 2013
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