Structural Fire Performance of Steel Beams Protected with Innovative Hot Melt Intumescent Composite (HMIC) Material

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In normal conditions, steel beams in buildings can undergo deflections. Deflections cannot be completely avoided;**however, structural engineers design buildings to minimize such deflections to fulfill the serviceability design**requirements. The situation becomes more complicated when steel beams are subjected to fire, as the**mechanical properties, i.e., ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and modulus of elasticity, etc., of structural**steel significantly deteriorate at elevated temperatures. Due to this significant deterioration, the load-bearing**capacity of structural steel elements dramatically decrease as temperatures increase resulting in much greater**deflections of the steel beams and therefore unsafe buildings. Various fire protection systems are available in the**market; however, practicality of the installation process of such systems is very crucial, in particular when applied**on structural elements that are susceptible to large deflections in fire condition, such as long steel beams.**3M Company has developed an innovative dry-apply Intumescent Fire-Resistant Material (IFRM) that is an**advanced fire protection product based on 3M proprietary Hot Melt Intumescent Composite (HMIC) technology.**The innovation fire protection product is anticipated to perform perfectly on steel beams susceptible to large**deflections when subjected to elevated temperatures. The main objective of this research project is to**experimentally investigate the fire resistance and performance of steel elements protected with the new fire**protection system at Lakehead University's Fire Testing and Research Laboratory. The outcomes of the project will**directly feed into the refinement of the product installation process leading to a commercialized product that**meets the requirement of the building code.