Fire effect and protection
The fire effect and protection can be defined by clicking the Define fire effect and fire protection () icon on the Loads tab.
The first option is to set the nominal fire curve. Three EuroCode defined fire curves are implemented and can be used to define fire effect: Standard, External, and Hydrocarbon.
The second one is to set the fire resistance time that can be varied between 15-200 min.
By clicking on the three-dot button next to the Fire protection data label, different fire protection can be created.
Fire protection can be Unprotected and Protected. If Protected is chosen, the protection can be passive or reactive.
- Passive protection: in this case, the type of fire protection material and the thickness of the insulation must be specified. There are several predefined materials in the drop-down list, or you can define new materials with the button.
- Reactive protection: this should be selected if the fire protection of the given structure (part) will be provided by an intumescent paint coating and the critical temperature calculation is required to select the paint.
Attention! Critical temperature calculation can only be requested for members that have reactive protection!
Finally, in the lowest drop-down menu of the dialog box, for any protected or unprotected type, the section grading of the structural element acc. to EN 1993-1-2 - 4.2.5. / 4.2 and 4.3. should be specified.
By clicking on the Apply button, fire protection will be saved. With the New button, several other protections can be created. With Delete button, the selected and created protection can be deleted.
The fire effect can be set to a different intensity at the top and the bottom of the member by modifying Ψ1 and Ψ2 multiplication factors. In case of varying intensity, the design parameters acc. to the EN 1993-1-2 4.2.3.3 (7)-(8) also can be set.
Created fire effect can be placed on the members with a simple click on the model. It is possible to apply fire effect to more members at the same time. In this case the members should be selected before clicking the fire icon.