Computational tool for design of steel elements in fire situation with and without fire protection material

Resumo

At high temperatures, steel presents changes in its mechanical properties, which can cause severe
accidents. Due to this, fire safety engineering has two objectives: the preservation of life and the reduction of
property losses. Among the measures that can be adopted to increase the fire resistance time of a structure, the
application of passive fire protection materials stands out. Despite the importance of these materials, information
about their fire behavior and their thermal properties are still limited, causing, currently in Brazil, the material
thickness to be determined based on fixed critical temperature values. Therefore, in this paper, a computational
tool was developed to help the design of fire protection materials in steel structures. The tool was developed in
Visual Basic for Applications language and performs the design of steel columns and beams at room temperature
and in a fire situation, with or without fire coating materials. The computer program considers protective materials
such as spray-applied mortar, gypsum board, and intumescent paint. The results obtained by the developed tool,
when compared with the literature, were satisfactory, indicating that the tool is a reliable and useful instrument for
the correct design and specification of protection materials.