Dimensional and Numerical Approach to Heat Transfer in Structural Elements with a Symmetrical Cross Section

The structures of buildings employ elements with symmetrical cross sections (columns have two axes of symmetry, and connecting beams have at least one), leading to symmetrical states of stress and deformation under the action of mechanical and thermal loads. Thermal stresses, resulting from temperature variations and fires, must be taken into account during calculations. Thus, it is important to perform theoretical and experimental studies on the propagation of heat flux during fires. Experimental investigations on prototypes can be replaced by investigations into attached, reduced-scale models. With the help of the model law (ML), deduced by dimensional approaches, the results obtained by the model can be extrapolated to the prototype. In the present article, the Szirtes’ Modern Dimensional Analysis (MDA) method is proposed; this is a simple, reliable, and repeatable dimensional approach. By applying the MDA to both the structural elements and model of an entire industrial hall, in terms of thermal field propagation, the authors demonstrate the undeniable effectiveness of the method in these construction calculations. MDA enables the efficient and easy analysis of thermal states of the homologous points of the prototype, even for spatial structures.