Multi-Dimensional Cost Optimization of Structural Fire Resistance

• Ranjit Kumar Chaudhary
• Thomas Gernay (supervisor)
• Ruben Van Coile (supervisor)

Description: 

Traditionally, adequate structural fire safety has been achieved primarily in terms of prescribed performance levels, essentially aimed at the objective of life safety. Increasingly, however, the emphasis is being placed on additional objectives such as property protection, structural resilience and total life-cycle costs. A comprehensive definition of adequate fire safety thus requires the simultaneous consideration of multiple objectives, taking into account the different dimensions of direct and indirect loss, both tangible and intangible. Due to the stochastic nature of the fire hazard, and uncertainty in the fire behavior of structural systems, demonstrating adequate safety for these novel objectives requires a probabilistic approach. The project aims to provide guidance on achieving an optimized structural fire design, considering the multi-objective costs associated with the fire exposed structure. The first phase considers the probabilistic evaluation of fire exposed structures, and the development of surrogate models. Subsequently, the multi-dimensional direct and indirect cost of structural fire damage for different structural design alternatives are assessed, taking into account realistic (‘natural’) fire scenarios. Finally, these results are applied to the multi-objective cost optimization for structural fire resistance of high-rise structures under fire exposure, and guidelines are developed.