Fire Safety In Perforated Wooden Slabs: A Numerical Approach

Abstract

The main goal of this work is to present a numerical model to assess the fire safety of wooden slabs with rectangular perforations on a ceiling. These typical constructions have good sound absorption, heat insulation and relevant architectonic characteristics. They are used in many civil applications: concert and conference halls, classrooms, nurseries, airports, hotels, shopping, universities, and many other public buildings. These panels are normally installed at a lower level in building constructions to facilitate essential maintenance. Depending on the installation requirement, the perforated wooden slabs could have insulation material inside the cavities. In this work the proposed numerical model could be used for different design constructive solutions. In order to guarantee the fire rating in a typical used perforated wooden slab, a transient thermal analysis with nonlinear material behaviour will be solved using ANSYS program. This study allows for verifying the evolution of the temperature and the char-layer throughout a wooden slab with different rectangular perforations and considering the insulation effect inside the cavities. The developed numerical model allows future studies and simultaneously characterizes the effect of rectangular perforations in wooden slabs to minimize the fire risk. The numerical model can easily be adjusted for other constructive solutions, to facilitate fire safety validation, in buildings with several wooden slab assemblies used in floors or in ceiling applications.