Experimental Study of Structural Fire Behavior of Oil Platform Decks Connections

Beam-to-column connections have been found to be of great significance in influencing structural behavior at ambient and elevated temperatures. Observations from full-scale fire tests and damaged structures confirm that connections have a considerable effect on the stability time of structural components in fire. Due to the high cost of elevated temperature tests, adequate experimental data about a broad range of connections is not available. One type of such connections is the connections between I-shape beam and pipe shape columns in oil platform decks. Considering the high probability of fire in oil platforms, study of the behavior of these connections at elevated temperatures is of great importance. Therefore, 11 experimental tests were conducted on this connection type to investigate their fire-resistance capacity. The failure modes and deformation patterns of these specimens were studied. The results showed that the main failure mode of the connection is the tensile failure of top star plate.