Fire Resistance of Steel Beams with Intumescent Coating Exposed to Fire Using ANSYS and Machine Learning

The thermal conductivity of steel is high compared to other materials such as concrete or timber. Therefore, fire protection measures are applied to prolong the duration between the onset of fire exposure and the final loss of load-bearing function of a steel structure. The most common passive fire...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Igor Džolev, Sofija Kekez-Baran, Andrija Rašeta
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-07-01
Series:Buildings
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/15/13/2334
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849319652565450752
author Igor Džolev
Sofija Kekez-Baran
Andrija Rašeta
author_facet Igor Džolev
Sofija Kekez-Baran
Andrija Rašeta
author_sort Igor Džolev
collection DOAJ
description The thermal conductivity of steel is high compared to other materials such as concrete or timber. Therefore, fire protection measures are applied to prolong the duration between the onset of fire exposure and the final loss of load-bearing function of a steel structure. The most common passive fire protection measure is the application of intumescent coating (IC), a thin film that expands at elevated temperatures and forms an insulating char layer of lower thermal conductivity. This paper focuses on structural steel beams with IPE open-section profiles protected by a water-based IC and subjected to static and standard fire loading. ANSYS 16.0 is used to simulate heat transfer, with thermal conductivity function described by standard multivariate linear regression analysis, followed by mechanical analysis considering degradation of material mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. Simulations are conducted for all IPE profile sizes, with varying initial degrees of utilisation, beam lengths, and coating thicknesses. Results indicated fire resistance times ranging from 24 to 53.5 min, demonstrating a relatively good level of fire resistance even with the minimal IC thickness. Furthermore, artificial neural networks were developed to predict the fire resistance time of steel members with IC using varying numbers of hidden neurons and subset ratios. The model achieved a predictability level of 99.9% upon evaluation.
format Article
id doaj-art-ebf979e4e03241899a531f301b848e79
institution Kabale University
issn 2075-5309
language English
publishDate 2025-07-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Buildings
spelling doaj-art-ebf979e4e03241899a531f301b848e792025-08-20T03:50:21ZengMDPI AGBuildings2075-53092025-07-011513233410.3390/buildings15132334Fire Resistance of Steel Beams with Intumescent Coating Exposed to Fire Using ANSYS and Machine LearningIgor Džolev0Sofija Kekez-Baran1Andrija Rašeta2Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, SerbiaDepartment of Building, Energy and Material Technology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, NO-8514 Narvik, NorwayFaculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, SerbiaThe thermal conductivity of steel is high compared to other materials such as concrete or timber. Therefore, fire protection measures are applied to prolong the duration between the onset of fire exposure and the final loss of load-bearing function of a steel structure. The most common passive fire protection measure is the application of intumescent coating (IC), a thin film that expands at elevated temperatures and forms an insulating char layer of lower thermal conductivity. This paper focuses on structural steel beams with IPE open-section profiles protected by a water-based IC and subjected to static and standard fire loading. ANSYS 16.0 is used to simulate heat transfer, with thermal conductivity function described by standard multivariate linear regression analysis, followed by mechanical analysis considering degradation of material mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. Simulations are conducted for all IPE profile sizes, with varying initial degrees of utilisation, beam lengths, and coating thicknesses. Results indicated fire resistance times ranging from 24 to 53.5 min, demonstrating a relatively good level of fire resistance even with the minimal IC thickness. Furthermore, artificial neural networks were developed to predict the fire resistance time of steel members with IC using varying numbers of hidden neurons and subset ratios. The model achieved a predictability level of 99.9% upon evaluation.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/15/13/2334fire loadingsteel beamsfire resistanceparametric analysisartificial neural networks
spellingShingle Igor Džolev
Sofija Kekez-Baran
Andrija Rašeta
Fire Resistance of Steel Beams with Intumescent Coating Exposed to Fire Using ANSYS and Machine Learning
Buildings
fire loading
steel beams
fire resistance
parametric analysis
artificial neural networks
title Fire Resistance of Steel Beams with Intumescent Coating Exposed to Fire Using ANSYS and Machine Learning
title_full Fire Resistance of Steel Beams with Intumescent Coating Exposed to Fire Using ANSYS and Machine Learning
title_fullStr Fire Resistance of Steel Beams with Intumescent Coating Exposed to Fire Using ANSYS and Machine Learning
title_full_unstemmed Fire Resistance of Steel Beams with Intumescent Coating Exposed to Fire Using ANSYS and Machine Learning
title_short Fire Resistance of Steel Beams with Intumescent Coating Exposed to Fire Using ANSYS and Machine Learning
title_sort fire resistance of steel beams with intumescent coating exposed to fire using ansys and machine learning
topic fire loading
steel beams
fire resistance
parametric analysis
artificial neural networks
url https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/15/13/2334
work_keys_str_mv AT igordzolev fireresistanceofsteelbeamswithintumescentcoatingexposedtofireusingansysandmachinelearning
AT sofijakekezbaran fireresistanceofsteelbeamswithintumescentcoatingexposedtofireusingansysandmachinelearning
AT andrijaraseta fireresistanceofsteelbeamswithintumescentcoatingexposedtofireusingansysandmachinelearning