II.4.

controlled duration and severity is essential to

accurately compare results from different
investigations. This issue was initially addressed in
1903 with proposals presented by the British Fire
Prevention Committee and adopted at the International
Fire Congress in London. These proposals were later
modified for practice in the United States, and in 1918,
at a joint conference between the American Society for
Testing Materials (ASTM) and the National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA), the first U.S.
standards were adopted. Underwriters Laboratories
Inc. (UL) followed shortly thereafter, publishing the
first edition of a separate standard in 1929 that was
approved by the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI)1.
Today, ASTM E1192, NFPA 2513, and ANSI/UL
2631 have become the standards for fire resistance
testing of construction elements in the United States.
They provide uniform testing methods for walls and
partitions, columns, beams, and roof and floor
assemblies. The procedures and requirements for
elements tested under each of the three standards are
virtually identical to each other. For the purposes of
this guide, ASTM E119 will be referenced.
III.2 PROCEDURE
The procedure begins with choosing a specimen that
represents the construction to be tested and assembling
it within or above a test furnace that is capable of
subjecting the specimen to increasing temperatures in
accordance with a standard time-temperature
relationship. A typical furnace for roof and floor
systems is shown in Figure III.1. Thermocouples are
attached to the element, and, if appropriate, fire
protection is applied. Specimens representing floor
and roof assemblies are always subjected to a
superimposed force, normally equal to their full design
capacity. A reduced load condition is allowed, but the
assembly in practice must also have the same limit
placed on load capacity. Standard test methods allow
columns to be tested with or without load. However,
columns are almost always tested in an unloaded
condition due to the limited number of facilities
available for loaded column testing.
The element is then subjected to furnace
temperatures conforming to the standard timetemperature
curve. The test is conducted under a slight
negative furnace pressure for the safety of the
laboratory personnel. Depending on the standard’s
specific criteria for the type of element tested (wall,
column, roof, floor, or beam) and the rating desired
(restrained or unrestrained), the test is completed when
either a limiting temperature criteria is met or the
element can no longer support its design load. A list of
limiting criteria for ASTM E119 is shown in Table
III.1. The standard also provides alternative test
procedures for elements without the application of
design loads.
Walls undergo an additional hose stream test that
consists of discharging a pressurized stream of water
upon the wall and observing its impact and cooling
effects. The hose stream test may be applied to the
tested specimen immediately following the fire
endurance test, or may be applied to a duplicate
specimen subjected to a fire endurance test for one-half
of its classification rating. A fire resistance rating,
expressed in hours, is derived from the standard fire
test by measuring the time elapsed until a failure
criterion is reached.