IMPROVING FIRE RATING OF STEEL STRUCTURE Government building regulations require fire resistance for structural elements depending upon the size of the building. When the structural elements comes under the influence of fire (Temp. more than 500 deg. C) they lose strength. To increase the fire rating of steel structure intumescent coating can be used which provides fire resistance upto 120 minutes. Intumescent coating provides strength to the structural elements against fire and helps in increasing the rating and thus preventing the building from collapsing. It is a method of providing passive fire resistance to the columns, beams etc. and it does not change the intrinsic properties of the Structural elements. But this is still to come within affordable limits. The coating is little expensive as compared to other protecting methods. Intumescent coating swells to many times of its original thickness when it is exposed to fire thus protecting the steel structure underneath the coating for a longer period of time. As the temperature increases from 500 deg. Celsius there is a high probability of structure collapse but intumescent coatings provides enough time to evacuate the building by keeping the structure erect.