CAREER: Performance-Based Fire Design for Cold-Formed Steel Structures

这个教师早期职业发展（CAREER）奖将产生一个先进的基于科学的框架，用于评估冷弯型钢结构的防火性能。该框架将能够更准确地模拟火灾对冷弯型钢结构的影响，从而支持改进的设计方法，通过更好的安全性、资源效率和防火能力来促进国家繁荣和福利。冷弯薄壁型钢轻型结构体系具有强度重量比高、施工速度快等优点，在美国非住宅建筑中得到广泛应用。传统上，冷弯型钢结构的防火保护是基于标准化测试得出的规定。然而，依赖规范性规定的成本很高，并阻碍了对更可持续和负担得起的建筑的创新。该研究项目将开发用于冷成型钢结构火灾分析的实验和计算能力，这将促进对这些薄壁构件的热暴露与稳定性和强度之间的基本关系的理解，以实现更好的结构防火设计。该研究将辅之以教育和推广计划，以吸引广大观众对结构消防工程师在建设抵御极端灾害的弹性社区中的作用。该计划将包括课程开发，外展活动，并与艺术的马里兰州学院合作开发的教育视频。从这个项目产生的数据将在国家科学基金会支持的自然灾害工程研究基础设施数据库（https：//www.example.com）公开提供。www.DesignSafe-CI.org研究的具体目标是通过开发量化薄壁框架构件火灾行为的能力，实现冷弯型钢结构基于性能的防火设计。这种行为在很大程度上取决于屈曲失效模式和高温之间的相互作用。因此，该项目将包括：（i）使用允许一系列瞬态高温条件的创新实验方法测试冷弯型钢立柱和托梁，（ii）开发热机械计算建模策略并创建高保真数值基准，以及（iii）开发基于分析的方法，用于评估冷弯型钢结构的防火性能。所提供的数据和方法将回答这些薄壁构件中复杂的火-热-结构相互作用的基本问题。因此，这项研究有可能提高对火灾中稳定性关键结构力学的理解，并提高基于物理设计的火灾下冷弯型钢结构的模拟能力。除了冷弯型钢结构之外，该研究还将在设计过程中与其他荷载情况一起实现结构火灾集成的飞跃，这将支持一致的基于性能和风险的设计，结构优化，和多个该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估来支持的搜索.

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will derive an advanced science-based framework for assessing the fire performance of cold-formed steel structures. This framework will enable more accurate modeling of the effect of fire on cold-formed steel structures that will support improved design methods for advancing national prosperity and welfare through better safety, resource efficiency, and resilience against fire. Lightweight cold-formed steel structural systems, with high strength-to-weight ratio and rapid construction speed, are widely used in nonresidential construction in the United States. Cold-formed steel structures are traditionally protected from fire based on prescriptive provisions derived from standardized testing. However, the reliance on prescriptive provisions is costly and impedes innovation toward more sustainable and affordable buildings. This research project will develop experimental and computational capabilities for the fire analysis of cold-formed steel structures that will advance understanding of the fundamental relationship between the thermal exposure and the stability and strength of these thin-walled members, to enable better structural fire designs. The research will be complemented by an educational and outreach program to engage a broad audience on the role of structural fire engineers in building resilient communities against extreme hazards. The program will include curriculum development, outreach activities, and educational videos developed in collaboration with the Maryland Institute College of Art. Data generated from this project will be made publicly available in the National Science Foundation-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure Data Depot (https://www.DesignSafe-CI.org). The specific goal of the research is to enable performance-based fire design for cold-formed steel structures by developing the capability to quantify the fire behavior of the thin-walled framing members. This behavior is largely governed by the interaction between buckling failure modes and elevated temperatures. Thus, this project will include: (i) testing of cold-formed steel studs and joists using an innovative experimental method allowing a range of transient high temperature conditions, (ii) development of thermal-mechanical computational modeling strategies and creation of high-fidelity numerical benchmarks, and (iii) development of analysis-based methods for assessing the fire performance of cold-formed steel structures. The provided data and methods will answer fundamental questions about the complex fire-thermal-structural interaction in these thin-walled members. The research thus has the potential to improve understanding of the mechanics of stability-critical structures in fire and advance simulation capability for cold-formed steel structures under physically based design fires. Beyond cold-formed steel structures, the research will create a leap toward integration of structural fire within the design procedure alongside other loading cases, which supports consistent performance-based and risk-informed design, structural optimization, and multi-hazard resilience assessment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.