Numerical simulation on disproportionate collapse of the tall glulam building under fire conditions

Perception of the public to structural fires is very important because there are only a number of tall timber buildings constructed in the world. People are hesitating to accept tall timber buildings, so it is essential to ensure the first generation of tall timber buildings to a very high standard, especially fire safety. Right now, there are no specific design standards or regulations for fire design of tall timber buildings in Europe. Even though heavy timber members have better fire resistance than steel components, many conditions still need to be verified before considering the use of timber materials, e.g. fire spread, post-fire collapse, etc. This research numerically explores the structural behaviours of a tall Glulam building when one of its internal Glulam (Glued laminated timber) columns fails after sustaining a full 120-min standard fire and is removed from the established finite element building model created in SAP2000. The numerical results demonstrate that the failure and removal of the selected internal Glulam column may lead to the local failure of the adjacent CLT (Cross laminated timber) floor slabs, but will not lead to large disproportionate damage and collapse of the whole building. Here, the building is assumed to be located in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.