Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833

www.elsevier.com/locate/jcsr
Heat transfer model for unprotected steel members
in a standard compartment re with
participating medium
J.I. Ghojel
a,
, M.B. Wong
b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Monash University, 900 Dandenong Road, Cauleld East,
Victoria 3145, Australia
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Building 60, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
Received 12 March 2004; accepted 19 November 2004
Abstract
A heat transfer model accounting for the radiative properties of combustion products in a
compartment standard re is presented. The model used is based on a conceptual scheme of a grey gas
mixture exchanging radiative energy with a black enclosure. The proposed model, with a radiation
heat transfer that accounts for the effect of combustion products on the rate of heat transfer from the
re to the structural elements, is simple to use and the predictions of the temperature response of
unprotected I-columns heated from all sides are superior to those predicted by the classical method
using the StefanBoltzmann radiation equation with constant emissivity.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Heat transfer; Model; Steel structures; Gas radiation
1. Introduction
Mathematical modelling of heat transfer in structural members under re conditions is
an essential part of a standard procedure in re resistance assessment of these members.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9903 2490; fax: +61 3 9903 1084.
E-mail address: jamil.ghojel@eng.monash.edu.au (J.I. Ghojel).
0143-974X/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jcsr.2004.11.003
826 J.I. Ghojel, M.B. Wong / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833
The main advantage of using mathematical models is that they are simple to use and can be
easily programmed into spreadsheets. According to Eurocode 3 [1], the steel temperature
increase, T
s
during time increment t in the case of bare unprotected steel elements in a
re through convection and radiation, is given by
T
s
=
1
c
ps

P
A
s

(q
c
+ q
r
)t (1)
where c
ps
specic heat of steel in J/kg K,
s
density of steel in kg/m
3
, P/A
s

massivity or section factor (perimeter/cross-sectional area). The two heat ux components:

convection, q
c
, and radiation, q
r
, both in W/m
2
, are represented as follows:
q
c
= h
c
(T
g
T
s
) (2)
q
r
=
res
[(T
g
+ 273)
4
(T
s
+ 273)
4
] (3)
where h
c
is the heat transfer coefcient (assumed 25 W/m
2
K [24]), T
g
and T
s
are
the temperatures of the re and steel, respectively (

C), StefanBoltzmann constant

(5.67 10
8
W/m
2
K
4
). The resultant emissivity
res
is given by

res
=
1
(1/
s
) + (1/
f
) 1
(4)
where
f
and
s
are the emissivities of the re and steel member, respectively. A value of
0.85 for
f
is recommended by SBI [5] for most re situations. Eq. (4) can be simplied
to [6]

res

s

f
(5)
and a value of 0.80 for the emissivity of the re
f
is recommended.
Eq. (3) does not include the shape (view) factor because it is based on the assumption
that the re and the steel member are represented by two innitely parallel grey planes,
or by a grey body surrounded by a grey enclosure at temperatures T
g
and T
s
, respectively.
The main drawback of this equation is that the re, which is assumed to be a hot grey
object with constant emissivity
res
, radiates energy to a structural element through a
perfectly transparent medium with the combustion products playing no role whatsoever
in the radiation heat exchange. Also, it is unlikely that the resultant emissivity will not
change with temperature, and therefore, it should be temperature dependent [7]. For the
current model, it is proposed to use an equivalent temperature dependent emissivity that
is derived from consideration of the effect of the gaseous composition of the combustion
products on the heat transfer by radiation.
2. Models with participating medium
If a grey (partially absorbing and partially emitting) enclosure lled with isothermal
non-grey gas is assumed, the following equation proposed by Edwards and Matavosian [8]
can be used to describe the radiative heat exchange between the gas and a steel member
q = F
g
(T
g
+ 273)
4
F
s
(T
s
+ 273)
4
. (6)
J.I. Ghojel, M.B. Wong / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833 827
Fig. 1. Total emissivity of a mixture of 10% CO
2
, 10 H
2
O and 80% N
2
.
An exact solution for this model accounting for an innite number of reections yields the
following equations for the transfer factors F
g
and F
s
F
g
=
s
[
g1
+
s
(
g2

g1
) +
2
s
(
g3

g2
) + ]
F
s
=
s
[
g1
+
s
(
g2

g1
) +
2
s
(
g3

g2
) + ]. (7)
The error in assuming one reection is only about 4% [8]; therefore the equations in (7)
are reduced, after replacing the reectivity
s
of the steel member by (1
s
), to
F
g
=

s

g1
1 (1
s
)[(
g2

g1
)/
g1
]
F
s
=

s

g1
1 (1
s
)[(
g2

g1
)/
g1
]
.
(8)
In these equations,
s
is the emissivity of the inner surface of the grey enclosure,
g
is the
total emissivity of the gaseous mixture at temperature T
g
over the mean beam length of
the enclosure, and
g
is the total absorptivity of the gaseous mixture for radiation from
a black surface at temperature T
s
absorbed over the mean beam length by the gaseous
mixture at temperature T
g
. The subscript 1 denotes properties for the mean beam length
of the enclosure and subscript 2 for two mean beam lengths including the effect of one
reection. The mean beam length is a characteristic dimension of the thickness of the gas
layer transmitting radiative energy and is taken equal to L
e
= 3.6V
c
/A
c
.
8
V
c
and A
c
are
the volume and surface area of the compartment, respectively. Thin gas layers transmit
more radiation than thick layers. Figs. 13 show values for
g1,

g2
,
g1
and
g2
for a
gas mixture comprising 10% CO
2
, 10% H
2
O and 80% N
2
at a pressure of 1 atm in a
828 J.I. Ghojel, M.B. Wong / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833
Fig. 2. Total absorptivity for mean beam length of the enclosure containing a mixture of 10% CO
2
, 10 H
2
O and
80% N
2
.
6 m 6 m 6 m enclosure. These properties, total emissivity and total absorptivity, are
determined from a methodology developed in Ref. [9] that is based on the generalised
scaling rules for estimating total properties for homogeneous gases proposed by Edwards
and Matavosian [8]. The total emissivity is rst determined from the radiation property
chart at the atmospheric pressure as a function of the average gas temperature, partial
pressure of the water vapour content and the thickness of gas layer, then scaled to any
pressure up to 10 atm using a scaling component chart. The total absorptivity is determined
in two steps by rst estimating the total emissivity
gs
at the enclosure temperature T
s
then
calculating the absorptivity from

g
= (T
g
/T
s
)
1/2

gs
.
The special case of a grey gas radiating to a black enclosure (no reection) can be obtained
by putting
s
= 1.0 in Eqs. (6) and (8)
q
r
=
g
(T
g
+ 273)
4

g
(T
s
+ 273)
4
. (9)
Ghojel [10], Wong and Ghojel [11] found that using this equation in the radiation
component of heat transfer models resulted in improved correlation between measured
and predicted temperature response of structural members under standard and wood re
conditions as compared with the Eq. (3). Fig. 4 shows a case study taken from [3] for an
J.I. Ghojel, M.B. Wong / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833 829
Fig. 3. Total absorptivity for two mean beam lengths including the effect of one reection of an enclosure
containing a mixture of 10% CO
2
, 10 H
2
O and 80% N
2
.
I-beam (P/A
s
= 74). The analytical models examined included the classical model (Eq.
(3)) with
res
= 0.6, grey gas surrounded by a grey enclosure (Eqs. (6) and (8)) and grey gas
surrounded by a black enclosure (Eq. (9)). It appears that Eq. (9) yields better correlation
with the observed results than the other remaining two in the case of unprotected steel
members heated from all sides.
3. The proposed model
Fig. 4 shows that the model of a participating medium with black enclosure (Eq. (9))
gives better correlation with experimental results relative to the other two models. This was
conrmed by modelling similar cases from the UK standard re tests [12]. Based on these
results a relationship for a variable equivalent emissivity (temperature dependent) that can
be used in the standard StefanBoltzmann equation is deduced by equating Eqs. (3) and
(9), after replacing the resultant emissivity
res
in Eq. (3) by the equivalent emissivity
eq
q
r
=
g
T
4
g

g
T
4
s
=
eq
[(T
g
+ 273)
4
(T
s
+ 273)
4
]
from which

eq
=

g
T
4
g

g
T
4
s
[(T
g
+ 273)
4
(T
s
+ 273)
4
]
. (10)
830 J.I. Ghojel, M.B. Wong / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833
Fig. 4. Prediction of temperature response of unprotected steel member by different models. Experimental data
from [3].
Fig. 5. Equivalent emissivity as a function of steel temperature and massivity.
Fig. 5 shows the values of
eq
calculated from Eq. (10) as a function of steel temperature
for three I-beams with massivities 50, 200 and 500. When the massivity changes from 50
to 500, the values of
eq
changes by
eq
= 0.54%. Therefore, to simplify the model the
J.I. Ghojel, M.B. Wong / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833 831
Fig. 6. Predicted (solid lines) and measured (markers) temperatures, P/A
s
= 75.80. Experimental data from [13].
values of
eq
for P/A
s
= 200 are taken as the average for all beams within the investigated
range.
eq
can now be represented by the following fourth degree polynomial t:

eq
= a + bT
s
+ cT
2
s
+ dT
3
s
+ eT
4
s
(11)
where
a = 0.4050437, b = 0.00039097791, c = 1.2346388e06,
d = 2.4208724e09, e = 1.3968447e12 and T
s
is in

C.
Figs. 68 show results of calculations using the current model and the standard model
for three cases taken from the UK standard re tests [12]. The upper range of measured
temperatures represent the mean temperature of the exposed web and the lower range the
exposed anges. These temperature ranges are close during the early stages of the heating
process gradually diverging with time. Generally, the predicted temperature prole is closer
to the mean temperature of the anges, particularly at the high-temperature end of the
heating process.
The closeness of the predicted temperatures by the standard model depends on the
assumed value of the resultant emissivity
res
. Wong and Ghojel [13] refer to some of
the recommended values: 0.5 (EC3), 0.64 (UK National Application Document preceding
EC3) and 0.7 (full EN version of EC3). The use of these values in Eq. (3) causes an
overestimation of the temperature prole of structural members, with the results improving
somewhat when
res
= 0.5. The proposed range of
eq
= f (T), which is well below
0.5, seems to give better overall prediction of the temperature prole of the tested
members.
832 J.I. Ghojel, M.B. Wong / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833
Fig. 7. Predicted (solid lines) and measured (markers) temperatures, P/A
s
= 184.97. Experimental data
from [13].
Fig. 8. Predicted (solid lines) and measured (markers) temperatures, P/A
s
= 27.79. Experimental data
from [13].
J.I. Ghojel, M.B. Wong / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 61 (2005) 825833 833
4. Conclusions
The proposed heat transfer model can be used to predict the temperature response of
unprotected steel structural members under standard re conditions in enclosures with
known temperaturetime histories.
The model yields results that correlate well with observed data for the examples
considered.
The model retains the simplicity of the StefanBoltzmann equation of thermal radiation
while at the same time accounting for real gas behaviour.
Although no attempt has been made here to investigate the effect of the convection
heat transfer component, it is conceivable that better results can be obtained with more
realistic temperature-dependent heat transfer coefcients. It is planned to investigate
this in a future work.
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