The paper presents a new, two-phase method to determine the thermo-chemical decomposition of timber member exposed to fire. In the first phase, based on the thermal analysis, the distribution of temperatures in the characteristic cross-section of timber member is computed. Based on the pyrolysis reaction, the decomposition of wood is determined in the second phase, where Broido-Shafizadeh model is used. The main purpose and advantage of the new developed method is to determine charring of wood, charring depth and char front temperature for a timber member exposed to random fire load. Thus, the studies given in the paper present the analyses for timber member exposed to standard and parametric fire curves. The studies reveal that fire growth rate has a significant impact on the development of charring depth as well as char front temperature.
COBISS.SI-ID: 8675937