SAFIR: a software for modeling structures in fire

Building Structures and Transport

SAFIR

®

: a software for modeling structures in fire

J.-M. Franssen, T. Gernay

Unité de recherche “Structural Engineering”

Contact : J.-M. Franssen,

JM.Franssen@ulg.ac.be

, 04/366 92 65 –

safir@ulg.ac.be

Quartier Polytech 1, B52, Allée de la Découverte 9, 4000 Liège -

www.uee.ulg.ac.be

1. Description of SAFIR

SAFIR is a computer program developed at University of Liege

to model the behavior of building structures subjected to fire.

The structure can be made of a 3D skeleton of linear elements

such as beams and columns, in conjunction with planar

elements such as slabs and walls and volumetric elements.

Different materials such as steel, concrete, timber, aluminum,

gypsum or thermally insulating products can be used

separately or in combination in the model.

2. Fire-Structure Interaction

1. The thermal attack

from the fire is given as

an input data

 ISO fire or user-defined  Localized fire

 Coupling with CFD

2. SAFIR computes the

evolution of

temperature in the

sections

3. SAFIR computes the

mechanical response of

the heated structure

 2D or 3D

 FE: truss, beam, shell, spring, solid

 Non linear

Web post buckling of a cellular steel beam in fire

3. Users in the World

SAFIR has been used to design iconic structures

4. References

Franssen, J.M., Gernay, T. (2017), Modeling structures in fire with SAFIR®: Theoretical background and capabilities, JSFE, 8(3).

Franssen, J.M. (2005), “SAFIR: A thermal-structural program for modelling structures under fire”, Engineering Journal, 143–158.

SAFIR website http://www.uee.ulg.ac.be/cms/c_2383458/en/safir

Online orders http://www.gesval.be/fr/catalogue/safir-2016-commercial

X Y

Z

1.0 E+01 m

Diamond 2009.a.5 for SAFIR FILE: Modelo_Def_3 NODES: 2624 BEAMS: 940 TRUSSES: 0 SH ELLS: 0 SOILS: 0 DISPLACEMENT PLOT ( x 1) TIME: 739.0464 s ec

Flumilog test, INERIS, France

1 1 1 1 1 111111₁ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1111111111111 11 111111111111 X Y Z

Diamond 2011.a.2 for SAFIR FILE: prot3board NODES: 1225 ELEMENTS: 1021 SOLIDS PLOT FRONTIERS PLOT CONTOUR PLOT TEMPERATURE PLOT TIME: 3600 sec 1041.90 900.00 800.00 700.00 600.00 500.00 400.00 300.00 200.00 100.00 20.10 X Y Z

Diamond 2009.a.5 for SAFIR

FILE: joint9p NODES: 31502 ELEMEN TS: 25411 SOLIDS PLOT FRONTIERS PLOT CONTOUR PLOT TEMPERATURE PLOT TIME: 120 s ec 154.40 141.95 129.49 117.04 104.58 92.13 79.67 67.22 54.76 42.31 29.85 17.40

The structural fire analysis works in 3 steps:

X Y

Z

5.0 E-01 m

Diamond 2004 for SAFIR

FILE: Big_low_DSt_fs c3 NODES: 1596 BEAMS: 44 TRUSSES: 0 SHELLS: 1320 SOILS: 0 DISPLACEMENT PLOT ( x 0.5) TIME: 4800 sec

The software captures the effect of fire on structures:

 Automatic coupling between thermal and mechanical analysis  Degradation of material properties with temperature

 Thermal elongation and second-order effects (large displacements)

It has been validated against tests in numerous research projects

Japan Tobacco headquarter (INGENI)

>120 academic users >90 commercial users Free demo version

Training sessions