- Author
-
Harman, K. A.
|
Lawson, J. R.
- Title
- Study of Metal Truss Plate Connectors When Exposed to Fire.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NISTIR 7393,
January 2007,
19 p.
- Keywords
-
metal plate
|
wood
|
wood truss
|
building collapse
|
fire tests
|
construction
|
cost effectiveness
|
fire fighting
|
structural collapse
|
injuries
|
fire fatalities
|
fire departments
|
exposure
|
fire tests
|
thermal exposure
|
heat transfer
|
char
|
thermocouples
- Identifiers
- lightweight construction; char depth range; post burns; char pattern
- Abstract
- The popularity of lightweight, metal plate connected wood truss construction is increasing due to cost effectiveness, versatility, and ease of construction. This type of construction brings many concerns to the firefighting community, since structural collapse has caused numerous injuries and fatalities in the fire service. In an attempt to determine the performance of metal plate wood truss connections during fire exposures, NIST conducted a series of twelve instrumented tests exposing one side of the test specimen to the thermal exposure. Load carrying ability of the metal plate truss connections was not measured during these tests. The tests were purely an attempt to study the heat transfer between the metal plate and the wood. Results from these tests suggest that the metal plates help to protect the wood beneath the plates. However, additional work is required to produce more detailed information.