Fire Hazards in Bridges: State of the Art, Recent Progress, and Current Research Gaps

Abstract

This paper critically reviews the understanding of fire hazards in bridges. It starts with identifying dangerous fire scenarios based on previous accidents. Existing studies on the fire performance of bridges are then discussed according to different experimental and fire modeling approaches, with a specific emphasis on the structural configuration of bridges and adopted failure criteria. Next, fire resilience enhancement methods for bridges are analyzed and classified as risk-based mitigation approaches, postfire decision strategies, and fire prevention and protection measures. Finally, this paper highlights recent progress and proposes critical knowledge gaps and future research directions based on these findings.