Impact of the structural model used on the steel hall fire resistance assessment

It is presented in detail how the selection of a structural model describing steel hall frame in a more or less complex way may affect fire resistance evaluation for such hall. In the examples compiled in this paper the same typical one-aisle and single-story steel hall is subjected to simulated fire action, each time following the same fire development scenario. A resultant fire resistance is identified individually in each case, using various computational models, on an appropriate static equilibrium path obtained numerically. It is shown that the greater the simplification of the model used, the more overstated the estimated fire resistance is in relation to its real value. Such an overestimation seems to be dangerous to the user, as it gives him an illusory but formally unjustified sense of the guaranteed safety level.