Abstract
Aim: The aim of this article is to provide a brief review of the basic hazards which might affect the potential re-use of bearing members made of structural steel following exposure to heating and cooling episodes in a fire. These hazards generally involve thermally induced and permanent changes observed in the microstructure of the steel after the fire is extinguished, usually not seen during a standard post-fire inventory aimed at assessing the technical condition of the building.
Project and methods: The article’s structure guides the reader through the successive potential forms of changes in the microstructure of structural steel, initiated by a monotonic increase in the temperature of the material, and followed by its more or less rapid cooling. The article first discusses the effects of ferrite-grain growth, then proceeds to a description of the effects of a partial pearlite-to-austenite transformation, and finally addresses the threats created by the initiation of a bainitic and/or martensitic transformation during the cooling phase. In this context, it discusses the consequences of potential surface decarburisation and the results of the possible occurrences of graphitisation and/or spheroidisation of cementite grains.
Results: It has been shown that the time-varying and uncontrolled impact on structural steel of a high fire temperature is likely to lead to the occurrence of unfavourable structural changes in this material, which usually result in a dramatic decrease in the effective ductility, coupled with a marked increase in hardness. In structural members re-used after a fire, such a set of features inevitably implies the high vulnerability of this type of steel to brittle fracture, and, consequently, carries a significant risk of the sudden and unexpected destruction of the components made of it.
Conclusions: The standard post-fire inventory of member deformations in the steel-bearing structure, supplemented only by the experimental verification of such steel-strength parameters, is not sufficient to reasonably conclude that these members are suitable for re-use under load. Such an assessment must be extended at least by a detailed study of the microstructure of the material under consideration, made a posteriori, and also by tests which allow the verification of its post-fire hardness and impact strength.
Keywords: structural steel, fire, microstructure, phase transition, ferrite, pearlite, bainite, martensite, graphitisation, spheroidisation
Type of article: original scientific article