{"id":55051,"date":"2026-03-25T09:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/case\/?post_type=news&p=55051"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:21:23","slug":"can-timber-columns-stand-up-to-the-heat-of-burning-buildings","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/case\/news\/can-timber-columns-stand-up-to-the-heat-of-burning-buildings\/","title":{"rendered":"Can timber columns stand up to the heat of burning buildings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an effort to improve building fire safety, Associate Professor<\/span> Thomas Gernay<\/span><\/a> from Johns Hopkins University\u2019s <\/span>Department of Civil and Systems Engineering<\/span><\/a> has published a new study that examines how load-bearing wooden columns\u2014increasingly used in taller buildings\u2014behave when exposed to heat from fires, including the overlooked cooling phase that follows extinguished flames.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Appearing in\u00a0<\/span>Engineering Structures<\/span><\/i><\/a>, the study from Gernay and his collaborators evaluates a thermal wave effect on the burnout resistance of timber structures, in other words, how continued temperature rise within the core of timber beams affects their structural resilience after a fire has gone out. The team\u2019s results have the potential to change the way engineers design timber structures to ensure they can withstand the entire course of a fire without risking collapse once the flames have been extinguished.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTraditionally, engineering design and practice have focused on fire resistance based on standard tests that assess how columns perform under continuous heating until failure, but there\u2019s no consideration for how a structure responds to the heating-cooling sequence that actually occurs in a real fire,\u201d says Gernay. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In one of Gernay\u2019s previous studies, he identified timber structures as being particularly vulnerable to delayed failure after a fire has subsided due to wood\u2019s combination of low thermal conductivity and rapid loss of strength in high temperatures. Wood’s compressive strength is already significantly reduced at 100 degrees Celsius, whereas steel and concrete remain relatively unaffected until 400 C.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Using both a controlled furnace environment and realistic fire scenario tests, the team tracked detailed temperature changes within load-bearing columns and compared those with numerical models that were developed prior to the fire testing phase. The results from the tests and numerical models were much the same, confirming the researchers\u2019 hypothesis that the temperature inside timber columns continues to rise long after visible flames are gone. Most of the timber columns eventually failed, often long after the gas temperatures had begun to decrease.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The team says that this effect,\u00a0known as delayed collapse, poses substantial risks\u00a0for building occupants and fire and rescue forces, especially as timber is increasingly used for taller and larger buildings\u00a0due to\u00a0several factors\u00a0like\u00a0sustainability, the\u00a0architectural value of wood, and the ability to build stronger structural\u00a0systems\u00a0of\u00a0mass timber.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, timber was used for relatively small buildings using standard, prescriptive fire resistance specifications which was enough to ensure safe buildings, but our results show that prescriptive fire resistance thinking cannot simply be applied to the new reality of taller, more consequential structures,\u201d says Gernay. \u201cOur tests indicate that delayed structural collapse is a real threat, so we need to give engineers methods to design timber framing that can survive a fire until full burnout.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With data from\u00a020\u00a0full-scale\u00a0fire\u00a0tests\u00a0with\u00a0varying\u00a0rates\u00a0of\u00a0heating\u00a0and cooling, the team was\u00a0also\u00a0able to\u00a0investigate several\u00a0other\u00a0parameters,\u00a0including\u00a0the\u00a0point\u00a0at which the\u00a0columns could resist the thermal wave effect,\u00a0with the goal of\u00a0surviving\u00a0until burnout.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen looking at the data from\u00a0the\u00a0fire tests,\u00a0we noticed\u00a0another phenomenon not captured by our models\u2014that larger\u00a0column\u00a0sections\u00a0could fail more than\u00a010\u00a0hours after ignition due to\u00a0smoldering,\u00a0which is a\u00a0slow flameless combustion,\u201d Gernay says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cImagine a\u00a0major\u00a0fire\u00a0in a 20-story building\u00a0with\u00a0hundreds of columns. Would we require firefighters to enter the building and spray each\u00a0potentially affected\u00a0column when we know that structural collapse can still occur, even after the fire has cooled?\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0asks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Using 12 loaded columns made of glued-laminated timber and sections measuring between 280x280mm<\/span>2<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>and 400x400mm<\/span>2<\/span><\/sup>, each column was tested for resistance under a natural compartment fire, with one test using water to extinguish the fire after 35 minutes. All of the tests ended in structural failure, except for the one which was extinguished by water. The researchers say this analysis highlights how challenging it is to design timber structures that are able to withstand an entire fire event without intervention. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gernay says that\u00a0increasing the\u00a0column\u00a0size can be a solution against the thermal wave effect, but it would be crucial to\u00a0also\u00a0address\u00a0smoldering, which\u00a0currently\u00a0shifts\u00a0much of the\u00a0responsibility\u00a0to\u00a0fire\u00a0departments.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gernay\u2019s\u00a0research on burnout resistance,\u00a0along with the published data on timber modeling and experimentation, has garnered significant interest. His work is cited in\u00a0the\u00a0background document\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>Netherlands Technical Agreement 6125<\/span><\/a>, \u201cFire safety of mass timber structures,\u201d and has been <\/span>adopted by engineering design firms like Jensen Hughes<\/span><\/a>. His studies have even attracted attention from firefighters given the risk of delayed structural collapse following fires.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With this\u00a0experimental\u00a0study\u00a0complete, Gernay is\u00a0now\u00a0leading\u00a0a\u00a0<\/span>project<\/span><\/a> funded by the National Science Foundation and aims to develop new, fire-resilient designs for timber buildings by combining computational modeling, machine learning, and topology optimization, an approach that determines the most efficient use of material distribution to meet performance goals.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need mass timber designs that are burnout resistant, those that go beyond standard fire resistance specifications, so we first have to understand the material\u2019s behavior throughout a complete fire lifecycle and be able to design structures so that a fire in a room doesn\u2019t result in a disproportionate collapse a couple of hours later,\u201d Gernay says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Study collaborators include Hopkins alumnus Chenzhi Ma, Engr \u201925 (PhD); Silvio Renard and Fabienne Robert from the CERIB Fire Testing Centre; Jean-Marc Franssen from Liege University; Jochen\u202fZehfu\u00df from Technische Universit\u00e4t Braunschweig; Research Institutes of Sweden\u2019s Robert McNamee; and Politecnico di Milano\u2019s Patrick Bamonte.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-55051","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-human-safety-security","news_categories-research","news_categories-structures"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCan timber columns stand up to the heat of burning buildings? - Department of Civil & Systems Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/case\/news\/can-timber-columns-stand-up-to-the-heat-of-burning-buildings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can timber columns stand up to the heat of burning buildings? 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