Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 629641

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Fire Safety Journal

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/firesaf

The behaviour of masonry walls subjected to fire: Modelling and parametrical

studies in the case of hollow burnt-clay bricks
The-Duong Nguyen

a,b,

, Fekri Meftah , Rabih Chammas , Ahmed Mebarki

Universite Paris-Est, Laboratoire Modelisation et Simulation Multi Echelle, MSME FRE3160 CNRS, 5 bd Descartes, 77454 Marne-la-Vallee, France
des Materiaux Naturels de Construction (CTMNC), 17 rue Letellier, 75015 Paris, France
Mortar

article info
Article history:
Received 8 March 2008
Received in revised form 16
December 2008
Accepted 17 December 2008
Available online 5 February 2009
Keywords:
Fire resistance
Clay masonry
Brick

Centre Technique

Finite element

abstract
A thermo-mechanical model is adopted in order to investigate the fire behaviour of clay masonry walls. In this
analysis, conductive, convective and radiative thermal transfers are considered together with local energy
consumption due to phase changes. These latter are essentially initiated by both the vaporisation of
adsorbed water and the chemical transformation of clay under rising temperatures. Therefore, experimental
tests at both the material scale and the brick scale are performed in order to identify the parameters that
characterise the thermo-hygral behaviour of clay. For this purpose, numerical simulations are carried out on
the experimentally tested hollow bricks in order to determine by back analysis these material parameters.
The thermal model being validated, the thermo-mechanical behaviour of a masonry wall subjected to fire, is
thereafter investigated by adopting a full three-dimensional finite-element analysis. Numerical simulations
results are compared to the experimentally measured ones in terms of both temperature and out-of plane
displacement fields. In this analysis, it is shown that a non-linear elastic behaviour for bricks and mortar with
temperature-dependent mechanical parameters is sufficient to retrieve the overall behaviour of thin masonry
walls. Finally, a parametric study provides the influence of each material parameter on the fire behaviour of
the partition walls.
& 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

E-mail address: the-duong.nguyen@univ-paris-est.fr (T.-D. Nguyen).

1. Introduction
In the event of a fire, building regulations require that masonry
walls should perform with regard to integrity, thermal insulation and
load-bearing capacity. Integrity and insulation are concerned with
the ability of the wall to provide an adequate barrier to fire while the
load-bearing capacity concerns its structural stability. The
evaluation of fire resistance (FR) for masonry structures is then of
great importance with regard to public safety.
FR of masonry walls is determined by subjecting members to
standard fire test conditions [10,13] and measuring the time
elapsed before each of these design criteria (integrity, insulation
and load-bearing capacity) becomes violated. Due to the varia-bility
and uncertainties that affect the physical and mechanical properties
of burnt-clay (terra-cotta) bricks, it is not easy to extend the
experimental results to other kinds of new products and geometries
(dimensions or shapes). Furthermore, large-scale structures are
rarely fire tested because of the cost and physical limitations of
standard furnaces.

Corresponding author at: Universite Paris-Est, Laboratoire Modelisation et

Simulation Multi Echelle, MSME FRE3160 CNRS, 5 bd Descartes, 77454 Marnela-Vallee, France. Tel.: +33160 95 73 89; fax: +33160 9577 99.

0379-7112/$ - see front matter & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:
10.1016/j.firesaf.2008.12.006

Development of theoretical models is required in order to predict

the behaviour of masonry elements and overcome these
experimental limitations. Nevertheless, the models should properly
describe the highly coupled phenomena involved (chemo-physical
transformations, thermal dependence of me-chanical properties,
etc.). Furthermore, heat transfer and the concomitant mechanical
behaviour are three-dimensional. How-ever, the existing models
often rely on two-dimensional ap-proaches based on macroscopic
modelling of masonry either derived at the macroscopic scale or
obtained by a homogenization theory [20]. In both cases, masonry
is considered as an equivalent homogeneous and continuum
medium with appropriate equiva-lent macroscopic properties. Thus,
these approaches preclude the effective thermo-mechanical threedimensional behaviour of masonry. Indeed, radiative and
convective heat transfer within the brick hollows is not correctly
described.
Another limitation of the existing models is that the terra-cotta
behaviour is derived from constitutive models initially adopted for
concrete masonry [23], which has a quasi-brittle behaviour.
However, experimental tests show that, under elevated temperatures, clay bricks present a rather ductile behaviour with increasing

strength and viscoplasticity [7].

Based on these considerations, the present study focuses on the

fire behaviour of non-loaded partition walls (thin masonry walls)
made of hollow burnt-clay bricks and traditional mortar.

630

T.-D. Nguyen et al. / Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 629641

(1)
During a standard fire, thin walls do not
experience localised cracks, which can lead to
a global failure [6]. This indicates that the
stress levels remain below the increasing
material strength. The analysis presented
herein shows that an adequate thermo-elastic
model for bricks and mortar is sufficient to
describe the overall behaviour of thin masonry
walls. In the proposed model, the dependence
of thermal and mechanical properties on
temperature is identified from specific
experimental tests.
Thus, a full three-dimensional finite-element
analysis is performed at the brick scale in
order to validate the thermal model. Then, the
overall behaviour of a thin wall is numerically
assessed and compared with experimental
results. The influence of the variability of the
material and geometrical properties, due to
experimental dispersion and manufacturing,
on FR is also investigated. For practical
purposes, the predicted FR is finally
compared to the prescriptions of design
codes.

2. Main purpose
2.1. Geometrical configurations
Under fire conditions, a masonry wall may
have a structural contribution or be restricted
to fulfil a separation role, depending on
whether it is loaded or not. This study deals
with walls of the second type, i.e., partition
walls. They are made of terra-cotta bricks with
a traditional joint mortar ( Fig. 1). Typically,
walls are considered to be subject to fire on
one side only (exposed face) while the
unexposed face is in contact with ambient air.

max

ini

where T
and T are, respectively, the
maximum and the initial temperatures. The
average temperature corresponds to the
mean value of the temperatures at some
predefined locations [14,15] on the
unexposed face of the wall.
2.2.2. Integrity
The integrity E is the elapsed time for which
the wall continues to maintain its separating
function without causing ignition of a cotton
pad (located at the unexposed face), or
permitting penetration of a standard gap
gauge or resulting in flame for more than 10 s
at the unexposed face. This criterion is not
easy to estimate by theoretical models and is
not considered here.
2.2.3. Load-bearing duration
The load-bearing duration R is the elapsed
time for which the wall continues to maintain
its ability to support the load. It deals with the
structural stability. For the case of separation
wall, this criterion corresponds to the following
limitations.
Limit of maximum horizontal displacement
amplitude:

D 400 e mm&

2.2. Structure requirements under fire action

(2)
Limit of maximum horizontal displacement
velocity:

For engineering purposes, the normative

standards [10,12,13] consider three main
criteria in order to evaluate the FR of masonry
structures: insulation I, integrity E and loadbearing capacity R.

_
2
L

2.2.1. Insulation
The insulation I corresponds to the elapsed
time for which the wall continues to maintain
its separating function. Accordingly, the norms
[10,12,13] require that the temperatures at the
unexposed face ( Fig. 1) should satisfy the
following conditions:
T

ave

max

x; e; z; tpT

ini

140 K

ini

180 K

x; e; z; tpT

D 9000e mm min
&
(3)
where e is the thickness of the wall and L is its
height.
Thus, the evaluation of the two criteria (I, R)
requires a robust prediction of the evolution of
temperature T(x, e, z, t) and horizontal
displacement uy(x, e, z, t) at the unexposed
face. The purpose is then to present a threedimensional thermo-mechanical approach
with an ad hoc identification procedure of the
material parameters in order to be able to
estimate, with the

Fig. 1. Masonry wall under fire exposure.

T.-D. Nguyen et al. / Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 629641

631

desired accuracy and by accounting for the

experimental disper-sions, these two
quantities.

The following initial-boundary values problem

[4,19] is solved in order to determine the time
evolution of the temperature

3. Thermo-mechanical modelling
3.1. Heat transfer model
The determination of the temperature field for
whole structure is the first step for analysis of
the behaviour of walls submitted to fire.
According to the differential thermal analysis
(DTA), performed by the Centre Technique de
Materiaux Naturels de Construction (CTMNC)
on the terra-cotta [7], and by other authors on
mortar samples [18], it is shown that several
chemical reactions (either endothermic or
exothermic) and phase changes occur within
these materials. Moreover, it is well known
that, when heated, partially saturated porous
media (as burnt clay and mortar) involve mass
transport of fluid phases within their porous
network. The heat transfer is then affected by
the transient hygral behaviour. Coupled
chemo-thermo-hygral modelling approaches
[2,17,18] might then be necessary in order to
determine the temperature field inside the wall
by taking into account the interaction between
heat transfer and mass transport. However,
these modelling approaches are almost
impracticable for real-scale walls due to the
computation requirements (time and capacity),
namely when a three-dimensional analysis is
adopted. Furthermore, the heating process
leads to vaporisation of the water present in
the material (adsorbed or chemically bound).
Only water due to the surrounding humidity
during the storage of bricks will fill very
partially the porous network of the hardened
material. Hence, convective heat transfer
within the porous network is significant only for
mortar, which is a minor constituent of
masonry. Furthermore, the firing during
manufac-turing generates strongly connected
porosity, which prevents pore pressures
building-up and thus induced damage during a
fire scenario: this hygral stability favours
structural stability of bricks.

For the sake of simplification and according to

the afore-mentioned hygral stability, only heat
transfer modelling is considered here when
determining the temperature field for the
whole structure. Nevertheless, local phase
change due to water vaporisation is taken into
account by modifying the heat capacity
accordingly (Section 4.1.1). Moreover, the
three modes of heat transfer, from the
exposed face to unexposed face of hollow
brick wall, are considered ( Fig. 2):

Fig. 2. Heat transfer process through the hollow brick.

distribution T(x, t) at each point x of the

masonry wall correspond-ing to the domain O:

rCpT

(4)
Ts T on @OT
(5)

lTrT n hc Ts
@Oq

T1 sTs

T1 on

(6)
where r is the mass density, Cp(T) and l(T)
are, respectively the temperature-dependent
heat capacity and the thermal conduc-tivity of
the material, r(T,t) is the heat source term that
accounts for chemical transformations, and hc
the exchange coefficient between the body
surfaces qO qOT[qOq, at temperature Ts,
and the ambient fluid at temperature TN. At the
boundary qOT the temperature is known, i.e.,
T, while at the boundary qOq, convective and
radiative fluxes are imposed. The radiative
exchange is characterised by the Stefan
Boltzmann constant s and the surface
emissivity 0pep1.
For the case of a closed cavity involving Ns
surfaces, the radiative flux qi, exchanged
along a surface i with emissivity ei (i 1, y,
Ns), is the solution of the following set of Ns
equations:

dij

Ns

Fi j
Ns

(7)
X
j
X

j1

j1

conduction in the solid partitions,

convection and radiation at the exposed and

unexposed faces, radiation inside the cavities.

@ T
@ t r lTrT rT; t in O

1
dij

qj
4

Fi jsTj

(10)
which leads to the following matrix form q of
the radiative fluxes within the closed cavity:
qA
(8)

BT

where the components of the matrices A and

B are, respectively, given by
1

3.3. Solution strategy

A d F 1
kl

where s is the stress tensor, e the strain

tensor, (l(T), m(T)) are the temperaturedependent elastic Lames constants, ath(T) is
the thermal expansion coefficient and T0 the
reference temperature. For each constituent,
experimental tests are hereafter performed in
order to determine the dependence of the
mechanical proper-ties on temperature.

kl k l

B d
kl

kl

F s
k l

(9)
and the components of the vector of radiative
n

reference temperatures is T k T k. In Eq.

(7), dij stands for the unit matrix and Fi j is the
view factor between the surfaces si and sj
[26].

The finite-element code Cast3M [1] has been

used in order to solve the previous equations
that control the thermo-mechanical behaviour
of masonry. This leads to the following set of
equations [28] for the temperature,
displacement and stress fields:
_

3.2. Mechanical behaviour

Cyyy Kyyy fy
(11)

In order to determine the stress and

displacement field within the masonry wall, a
simple thermo-elastic constitutive model is
adopted for both the mortar and the clay
bricks. For each constituent, the stressstrain
relationship is then given by

Kaaa fa Kayy
(12)
where y and a are the nodal temperature and
displacement variables, respectively, Cyy is
the heat capacity matrix, Kyy the

sij l kkdij 2m ij

3l 2mathT T0dij