Behaviour of steel and composite beam-column connections in fire

The degradation of steel and composite connection characteristics at elevated temperatures is investigated. Five series of tests are carried out in a portable connection furnace at the Building Research Establishment. The test series includes two full end-plate and one flexible end-plate bare steel connections, and two flexible end-plate composite connections. Moment-ratio-temperature curves for different connection types are interpolated from the results obtained from tests at constant level with increasing temperature. It is found that the elevated temperature tests of all types produced failure modes similar to those which happened to the same connection at ambient temperature. In nearly all cases the degradation is small up to 400 °C.