Charring rate determination of wood pine profiles submitted to high temperatures Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • The wood material presents an increasing use for structural engineering applications in buildings and other specials engineering production. To assess safety rules, this type of elements should have sufficient mechanical resistance to guarantee the design loads. Wood is a natural material and is submitted to many constantly changing influences. The high wood vulnerability, due accidental conditions, requires rigorous thermal and mechanical assessment. The combustion and the chemical phenomena occurred in wood during an accidental situation of elevated temperature is a complex study issue. When wood structures are exposed to high temperatures, the burned wood becomes a char layer which loses all strength but insulating temperature rise in the core of material. The charring rate is more or less constant and mainly depends on the density and moisture content wood properties. Safety rules and guidelines should be useful for different wood applications. The fire safety of this type of material involves prevention, inhibition, detection and evacuation. This involves appropriate design rules, installation, construction and maintenance of the wood material applications. This paper proposes an experimental and a numerical method for charring rate determination in pine wood. Different pine sections will be tested and submitted to high temperatures using a heating power unit based on electrical resistances. The temperature results will be measured through wood profile during time heating exposure. Using appropriated material properties and boundary conditions, reasonable predictions of charring layer with a finite element analysis method, can be provided. The thermal response obtained with the finite element formulation will be compared with experimental results, in several series of wood pine profiles. Char layer thickness will be determined.

publication date

  • January 1, 2009