Abstract
During or after an earthquake event, building system often experiences large strains due to shaking effects as observed
during recent earthquakes, causing permanent inelastic deformation. In addition to the inelastic deformation induced by
the earthquake effect, the post-earthquake fires associated with short fuse of electrical systems and leakage of gas
devices can further strain the already damaged structures during the earthquakes, potentially leading to a progressive
collapse of buildings. Under these harsh environments, measurements on the involved building by various sensors could
only provide limited structural health information. Finite element model analysis, on the other hand, if validated by predesigned
experiments, can provide detail structural behavior information of the entire structures. In this paper, a
temperature dependent nonlinear 3-D finite element model (FEM) of a one-story steel frame is set up by ABAQUS based
on the cited material property of steel from EN 1993-1.2 and AISC manuals. The FEM is validated by testing the
modeled steel frame in simulated post-earthquake environments. Comparisons between the FEM analysis and the
experimental results show that the FEM predicts the structural behavior of the steel frame in post-earthquake fire
conditions reasonably. With experimental validations, the FEM analysis of critical structures could be continuously
predicted for structures in these harsh environments for a better assistant to fire fighters in their rescue efforts and save
fire victims.
