Advances in research on fire engineering of steel structures

It is over a decade since the UK's Cardington fire research programme began and eight years since the collapse of the US World Trade Center, two events that have shaped research on fire engineering of steel and composite structures. Successful performance of the Cardington steel structure in a fire has been eagerly taken up by many as a means of reducing the cost of fire protection, while the World Trade Center collapse brought to worldwide attention the danger of fire-induced total structural collapse. This paper summarises recent developments in UK steel structural fire-engineering research and identifies key issues for further work, including performance and integrity of fire-protection materials with regard to controlling progressive structural collapse and fire spread.