The Duration of Heating Phase (DHP) concept – Literature summary and Roadmap

The Duration of Heating Phase (DHP) concept – Literature summary and Roadmap

The Duration of Heating Phase (DHP) concept is the path forward to include in a pragmatic manner the importance of the cooling phase of structural elements in fire safety engineering. This concept is a complementary measure to the standard fire resistance where elements are classified based on testing according to fire resistance standards. The standard fire resistance classification is a system for grading elements or structures based on the hypothesis that a higher fire resistance time will perform better in a real fire. In this standard classification system only the heating phase is evaluated, however, this approach does not provide a refined enough picture given that all real fires include a cooling phase during which heat is redistributed in the cross section.