Temperature distribution analyses of composite steel-concrete columns under natural fire

In civil engineering, composite steel-concrete columns are being increasingly used for their dual advantage of excellent load bearing capacity and fire resistance. Traditionally, the fire resistance of composite structural members has been determined in standard fire tests, with the temperature-time curves representing more severe heating conditions compared to that which occurs in many typical natural fire compartments. To design a composite structure safely and economically, it is necessary to calculate temperature distribution in composite steel-concrete columns under natural fire. In this paper, the program TFIELD written by authors is introduced firstly, and the temperature distribution in a composite steel-concrete column under natural fire and standard fire is studied using TFIELD secondly. Comparisons have been made with the results under the standard ISO 834 fire and that under a natural fire, exhibiting obvious differences.