Heat from a fire may significantly damage and distort structural steel members and bolted connections within a building and also adversely change their mechanical properties.
It is important that any steelwork and/or bolted connections affected by fire undergo a fire damage assessment. Ideally, the fire-damaged structural steel should be examined against control samples away from the fire. Such an investigation may involve the following stages:
- Preliminary inspection
- On-site assessment of damage by visual inspection
- Laboratory testing of fire-damaged steel samples removed from the structure to determine the mechanical properties, which may involve tensile testing or hardness testing.
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