Strategies for Enhancing Fire Performance of Steel Bridges

Bridge fires can lead to significant economic and public losses; however, no provisions are specified for fire resistance of bridge structural members in current codes and standards. This paper presents an approach for mitigating fire hazard in bridges. The approach comprises of two steps, estimating fire risk in a bridge, and then developing strategies for enhancing fire resistance of a critical bridge. An analytical procedure is employed to derive a fire-based importance factor to estimate the vulnerability of a bridge to fire, and then a sequential finite element analysis is carried out to develop strategies for mitigating fire hazard in that bridge. The validity and applicability of this approach is demonstrated through a case study on a steel bridge that experienced fire recently. Through this case study, it is shown that the proposed approach can be used as a practical tool for identifying critical bridges from the point of fire hazard and then developing solutions to overcome fire hazard in such critical bridges