Lessons from the Cardington Fire Tests: Applications in the Performance-Based Fire Design

<p>Performance-based fire design represents one of the routes available to design for structural fire safety. The development of the approach and the assessment of the behaviour of multi-storey composite steel structures in fire have been mainly developed from the understanding gained from the Cardington full-scale fire tests carried out between 1995-96. The tests not only contributed to the understanding of the inherent fire resistance of steel-framed buildings, but also provided significant data to validate computational finite element (FE) models which are now used to develop optimum fire protection designs for safety, sustainability and economy.</p><p>By adopting the performance-based approach to structural fire engineering, more economical designs and efficient construction programmes of buildings can be achieved. Additionally, performance-based design can enhance the levels of safety by providing a better understanding of the actual behaviour of the structure during fire.</p><p>This paper outlines the lessons learned from the Cardington fire tests and the development of the key outcomes in the last 20 years in the advancement of the performance-based fire design process. Examples of practical applications of performance-based fire design on large and tall steel-framed buildings carried out by the authors are given along with the main challenges and technical issues.</p>