Protecting smart cities structures from fire hazards: experimental analysis of post-tensioned beams

Abstract

The basic vision of smart cities is to replace conventional systems with smart technologies in both the construction process and the operation of these structures. One of the most essential operation systems is the fire protection system, which represents a challenge between smart cities developers to create a more secure community with new alarm technologies such as digital sensors with artificial intelligence, which creates greater safety for users. As a result, this paper provides a new solution using outbox thinking in order to compete with the current technology alternatives and find a place in these competitions as a more efficient answer. The possibility of artificial firefighting systems failing to contain these fires led to the experimental investigation of a new solution: the use of a thermal insulation coating with the post-tension system to provide immediate protection for the entire structure elements at resisting the fire effect while also allowing for the reloading of these elements after the fire control and preventing loss of stability in the structural elements. The main results from the experiments were that (i) the thermal insulation coating got reacted after 20 min of fire exposure time and (ii) the strands’ thermal degree was maintained at 100 °C until the end of the test, resulting in slight loading drops that allowed the fired beam to reach the near failure load after loading until failure compare with the control beam failure load; (iii) the retired water didn’t get through the fired beam outer surface during the fire period due to the absence of the extended crack that’s was important cause at the internal dehydration for the beam.