Affiliations: [a] Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
| [b] Leipzig Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Leipzig, Germany
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author. I. Kaundinya, Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, E-mail: Kaundinya@bast.de.
Abstract: Vandalism, human errors or severe accidents could result in significant fire events on and beneath bridges. The resulting damages often require a reconstruction of the bridge superstructure or, in case of a complete collapse, of the whole bridge. In a research project well-founded and systematic findings regarding the consequences of extreme fire events beneath and on top of bridges were elaborated. The examined scenarios include solid and liquid fires which were investigated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculations. In order to validate the CFD models used, an original-scale bridge fire test was conducted, using a fire scenario with a truck loaded with wooden pallets. In order to answer the question which bridge structures are the most vulnerable to extreme fire events and have to be protected in the future, especially civil engineering aspects should be taken into account with due consideration given to bridge geometry, clearance, material and structure.
Keywords: Bridges, extreme fire, CFD simulations, large scale fire test
