Coupling Thermal and Structural Analysis Tools for Atria Design Under Fire Conditions

Building structural and environmental safety under indoor fire incidents are two critical but relatively independent aspects in building fire safety management. This paper demonstrates how fire smoke modeling tools can provide useful information that can be applied for structural safety analysis, especially for large spaces with advanced structure design approach. As an example, this study simulated and analyzed the fire influence on the atrium and its steel roof of the DZ Bank in Berlin (DE) with the integrated approach. Both computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and zonal fire models were used to predict the indoor thermal conditions that were essential for structural analysis. The study indicates that both zonal and CFD fire models can provide valuable information for fire smoke control and structural resistance analysis. With the integrated approach, advanced structural design approach can be applied in practice with less computing efforts and more design accuracy.