Fire Resistant Concrete Design? 1

[jeffatGE]

I am designing a slab on grade to be used as a fire-training slab. They will be burning hydrocarbon fuels for some of their fires--so the fires will be very hot, and produce a lot of heat very quickly.
The information I have found mainly deals with the one-time/rare fire that will hit your structure.
Does anyone have any thoughts on designing concrete that will be repeatedly undergo high-temp fires, while not spalling too much?

 

[jheidt2543]

I don't have an answer, but I do have a suggestion. I would call the Technical Services Departments at the Portland Cement Association (PCA), American Concrete Institute (ACI) and also some product manufacturers like Master Builders to see if they have information on coatings or aggregate types that could help.

You might also think of using fire brick set on top of the concrete slab or perhaps even set in a sand bed on the the subgrade.

 

[JAE]

We have designed a fire training facility in our area and whenever there were locations where fire would be directed toward concrete, we used a set of hanging steel plates, about 12" away from the concrete, to shield the concrete from the heat. Otherwise, the concrete will spall due to embedded moisture expanding within the concrete matrix.