A Numerical Study of the Response of Building Components to Heating in a Fire

This paper addresses the problem of fire resistance of building systems. A numerical parametric study is performed to find the influence of various physical and chemical parameters on the thermochemical response of wood, gypsum, and wood-under-gypsum walls subjected to a simulated fire on the front face. It is found that: (i) the thermal radiation terms are important in the exposure boundary condition; (ii) the pyrolysis kinetic detail required to design fire-resistive walls is minimal; and (iii) the earlier dimensional and approximate analyses are in agreement with the present numerical results. These results suggest use of a simple analytical relationship to describe and correlate the ASTM E-119 fire endurance test data.