| Abstract: | There is a risk of a building suffering unsustainable structural damage in the event of a large fire. Therefore, it is necessary to design buildings to withstand expected fires. A widely used simplified calculation method is the so-called “time-equivalence” method. There are significant concerns about the suitability of this method. This paper is part II of a twofold study examining the state of the art of time-equivalence methods. The purpose of this paper is to identify methods and/or analysis concepts which show the potential for use in modern design. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is used for this purpose. However, as there is a large number of time-equivalence methods to assess, a numerical case study is first undertaken to identify methods which have sufficient accuracy to warrant further study. These analyses found that, while none of the time-equivalence methods studied have sufficient accuracy for use in their present form, the methods derived using the equal energy concept provide a good basis to model the effects of fire on a structure. This study recommends that a new time-equivalence method be developed using the equal energy approach. |
