There is a growing interest on the research on the structural safety under fire in Brazil, but some aspects that still need discussion. The simulation and laboratory evaluation of structural elements under a fire situation is one of those aspects, especially regarding the testing methodology. The Brazilian standard NBR 5628:2001 needs to be reviewed in order to adapt international methodologies to our reality or even to establish new methodologies, considering variables that are relevant in the local context. This paper provides a starting point for those discussions, by gathering the parameters that that guide the methodological procedures for the evaluation of structural elements in natural scale, under load, and in a fire situation. Relevant parameters, such as the minimum dimensions of the elements to be tested, rates of temperature rise with time, infrastructure for tests, instrumentation of the structural elements, among others, have been evaluated based on current national and international standardization. It is hoped that this work will make contributions for the future revision of the NBR 5628:2001 standard, and encourage Brazilian researchers to join this new and arduous research theme.
Fire situation; Methodology; Test; Laboratory; Structures
