Performance-Based Analysis of Single-Layer Cylindrical Steel Reticulated Shells in Fire

With the rapid development of architectural technology, long-span structures have been widely used due to their vast interior space and beautiful architectural composition. Due to the characteristics and high costs of coating materials on large steel structures, fire resistance designs for these kinds of structures have become more and more important. This paper presents comprehensive case analyses of the fire performance of single-layer cylindrical reticulated shells. Nonuniform fire temperature fields of single-layer cylindrical reticulated shells in different fire scenarios were generated using a Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). The influences of different parameters on the air temperature field during a fire in a reticulated shell structure were analyzed. A Finite Element (FE) model was developed using the FE software ABAQUS to model the structural behavior of single-layer cylindrical reticulated shells in different fire scenarios. The effects of various parameters on the responses of single-layer cylindrical reticulated shells during a fire were investigated. Using the results from the performance-based analysis in this research, we propose some recommendations for fire resistance designs for single-layer cylindrical reticulated shells.