Evaluation of the Impact of Potential Fire Scenarios on Structural Elements of a Cable-Stayed Bridge

It has become necessary to consider the potential exposure of major bridges to flames from oil or liquefied petroleum gas fires as part of comprehensive risk assessments being undertaken for major infrastructure. This article identifies and characterizes potential fire scenarios relevant for bridges and considers the likely impact on elements of a bridge structure. As part of this study, simplified heat transfer models are developed for the purpose of determining the temperatures of key structural steel elements. These models, which provide an efficient method for determining heat transfer through elements such as heavy bundled steel cable, are described in this article. The Newton—Raphson method is used to solve the key equations. Calculated temperatures are presented for the various fire scenarios involving key structural steel elements and the implication of these temperatures for the structural behavior of the steel elements is considered.