Thermo-mechanical analysis of a fire door for naval applications

In this work, the thermo-mechanical response of fire doors for naval application is considered. In order to evaluate their behaviour, fire doors must undergo a standardized fire test. A realistic simulation of the heating process can be useful during the design phase in order to reduce the number of prototypes to be constructed and tested. In this work, a finite element model is developed with the aim of capturing the qualitative behaviour of the fire door and its supporting frame. Two different types of thermal analysis are considered: (1) transient analysis and (2) steady-state analysis. A non-linear mechanical analysis predicts the displacement field that occurs at the end of the heating phase. The adopted model is validated through a comparison with experimental measurements obtained during standard fire tests, confirming that the proposed approach can be a valid tool for the prediction of the thermo-mechanical performance of a naval fire door. © The Author(s) 2015.