Background information:
Concrete
Concrete can spall under the influence of fire. If the reinforcement lie near to the surface of the concrete and this heats up then it will expand at a different rate to the surrounding concrete and expand. This expansion can cause cracking to the concrete structure. Concrete is fairly resilient to water damage and will dry out after wetting if the water contains contaminants then this can lead to the chemical attack of the cement within the concrete.
Timber
Heat and the presence of oxygen cause the combustion of timber by fire. The surface chars and eventually breaks down the structural integrity of the timber until it is burnt right through. Smoke damage can discolour timber which will then require decoration if it has not caught fire and charred. Water can damage timber by wetting which expands the hygroscopic material and causes dimensional change to the timber with eventual rot if this wetting persists.
Background information:
Heat travels in waves like other forms of energy, and can change the matter it touches. It can heat it up-which starts molecules moving or it can cause chemical reactions like burning to occur. How does heat moves? In this experiment, the heat moves in the way of radiation. Radiation happens when heat moves as energy waves, called infrared waves, directly from its source to something else. This is how the heat from the Sun gets to Earth. In fact, all hot things radiate heat to cooler things. When the heat wave hits the cooler thing, they make the molecules of the cooler object speed up. When the molecules of that object speed up, the object becomes hotter. If the surface is a dark colour surface, then the object tends to absorb more heat compared with the object’s surface which is bright in colour. In addition, the thermal conductivity correlates positively with density; materials with low density, particularly with fibrous or granular structures containing air filled pockets, have...