Author: Michael Gollner

Fire Science Image submissions are now open for the 11th Symposium on Fire Safety Science! They must be submitted before January 31st, 2014! 

Fire Science Images 
Building on previous successes in recent symposia,  the program of the 11th IAFSS Symposium will also include a Fire Science Image competition and you are invited to submit an image that may correspond to experimental studies, numerical studies or actual events. Images should be non-commercial. Images will be displayed on a designated display board. Images should be between A5 (148 mm x 210 mm) and A4 (210 mm x 297 mm) in size.

Awards
Posters and images presented at the 11th IAFSS Symposium will be considered for the following 3 Awards:

• Best Poster Award – Awarded to the best poster based on technical content, organization, and visual presentation. The selection will be made by the poster awards committee.
• Best Student Poster Award – Awarded to the best poster by a student author based on technical content, organization, and visual presentation. The selection will be made by the poster awards committee.
• Graphic Image Award – Awarded to the best fire science image based on originality, scientific significance, and artistic/aesthetic appeal.

Image Submission Instructions

Images should be submitted electronically through the EasyChair web page for the Symposium https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=11iafss. After creating your own login account, select “Submissions” to submit your manuscript. Please choose the most appropriate topic area for your submission.

The submission deadline for images is January 31, 2014. Images submitted after January 31, 2014, will not be considered.

Notes:

1. After selecting “New Submission,” please select the “Image” track.
2. The keywords on the submission page need to be entered in separate lines. e.g.,

• fire chemistry
• modeling
• flame spread

2. Attach the PDF document of your image. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept other formats through the easychair system, however you may convert other image formats for free to PDF online (e.g. http://www.freepdfconvert.com/)

Image Review Process 

• Images will be reviewed by the Image Program Committee.
• Submitters will be notified of the Image Program Committee’s decision soon after January 31, 2014

For questions about Image or Poster Submissions, please contact Piotr Tofiło.

Award nominations are due for two prestigious awards that will be presented at the 11th IAFSS Symposium in Christchurch, New Zealand, the IAFSS Best Thesis Award “Excellence in Research” and the Kunio Kawagoe Gold Medal.

• IAFSS Best Thesis Award “Excellence in Research” (PDF) – Nominations due January 7th
• Kunio Kawagoe Gold Medal (PDF) – Nominations due January 7th
• Philip Thomas Silver Medal of Excellence (PDF)

IAFSS Best Thesis Award “Excellence in Research”

Award, eligibility and its privileges IAFSS Best Thesis Award “Excellence in Research” recognises best research dissertation at PhD and Masters levels, in the field of fire safety science and engineering. There are three such Awards for the three IAFSS regions, Europe and Africa, Americas, as well as Asia and Oceania. All theses submitted for examination by 31 Dec 2013 and outside the cut-off date of the 2011 Award (31 January 2011) are eligible for nomination. Each nomination must be submitted by the student’s supervisor, as described below. The Award consists of a plaque and a grant of US$2,000.

Nomination process

The following documents need to be submitted by email by the nominee’s supervisor to Professor Bogdan Dlugogorski, Murdoch University, Australia, [email protected], by 7 January, 2014, 5 pm, Perth (Australia) time: • A letter of recommendation by the nominee’s supervisor not to exceed 2 pages; • A pdf copy of the thesis (preferably in English; if not available, in its original language); • An abstract of the thesis in English (no longer than three pages); • A list of publications. The list should comprise journal articles (including those that have been submitted for publication, whether accepted or not), and conference publications (indicating the form of review; no review, by Abstract, by full paper). Publications in preparation or draft should not be listed; • Pdf preprints or reprints of up to three best papers derived from the nominee’s thesis (conference papers can be included). Only one thesis can be submitted for Award from a given University or Institution. When more than one thesis is of sufficient quality for submission for the Award, a preliminary selection must be carried out locally and the nominee’s supervisor needs to explicitly describe in the letter of recommendation the local selection process. If more than one thesis is submitted by a single institution the nominators will be asked to withdraw the submissions voluntarily and explain the reasoning behind the selection. If more than one thesis remains submitted by 7 January (5.00 pm, Peth time) then none of the submissions from that institution will be considered. All submissions will be confirmed upon reception.

Selection considerations

The four criteria used to select the best thesis include Pertinence Is the thesis’ subject matter within the scope of the field of fire science and engineering? Impact Have the results of the thesis been disseminated broadly in top ranked peer-reviewed international journals and conferences? Significance Do the results of the thesis add to our present knowledge? Are there new, accurate, useful and important? Quality Are the methodologies applied in the thesis sound and correct? Is the thesis well written?

Selection body

The recipients of the IAFSS Best Thesis Award “Excellence in Research” will be selected by the IAFSS Awards Committee that consists of Mr Dieter Brein (Chair, The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany), Dr Craig Beyler (Hughes Associates, USA), Professor Michael Delichatsios (The University of Ulster, UK), Dr Michael Spearpoint (The University of Canterbury, New Zealand) and Professor Takeyoshi Tanaka (Kyoto University, Japan). For the purpose of this Award, the Committee will be assisted by Professor Bogdan Dlugogorski (Murdoch University, Australia).

Past recipients

IAFSS Best Thesis Award “Excellence in Research” was first presented at the 8th IAFSS Symposium at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2005. Its past recipients are listed below

2005: (Europe and Africa) Susan Lamont, The University of Edinburgh, UK, PhD Thesis; (Americas) Amnon Bar-Ilan, The University of California, Berkeley, USA, PhD Thesis; (Asia and Oceania) Weng Wenguo, Waseda University, Japan, PhD Thesis

2008: (Europe and Africa) Markus Knobloch ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, PhD Thesis; (Americas) Ali S. Rangwala, The University of California, San Diego, USA, PhD Thesis; (Asia and Oceania) Johannes A.W. Dimyadi, The University of Canterbury, NZ, Masters Thesis

2011: (Europe and Africa) Angus Law, The University Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, PhD Thesis; (Americas) Christopher Lautenberger, The University of California, Berkeley, USA, PhD Thesis; (Asia and Oceania) Kai Chen, The University of Newcastle, Australia, PhD Thesis

 

Kunio Kawagoe Gold Medal

for Outstanding Lifelong Contributions to Fire Safety Science

 

Professor Kunio Kawagoe

The picture taken by Dr Philip Thomas; it captures well Professor Kawagoe’s character.

 

Award eligibility and its privileges

Kunio Kawagoe Gold Medal is awarded by IAFSS as a prestigious recognition of life-long contributions to and career achievements in fire science and engineering.  The Award comprises Bronze Medal of gold appearance and Plaque.  It entitles the recipient to free travel to and free registration at the Symposium, where the Award is formally announced and presented.

 

Nomination process

Please send nominations, including a justification (up to two pages in length), and contact details of the proposer and the seconder, to Dr Craig Beyler, [email protected], by 7 January 2014, 5 pm, Baltimore time.  Either the proposer or the seconder must be a member of IAFSS.  Self-nominations will not be accepted.  A nominee may or may not be a member of IAFSS.  Each nomination is confidential and should not be disclosed to a nominee.

 

Selection considerations

The past recipients of the Kunio Kawagoe Gold Medal made significant and lasting contributions to fire science and engineering through innovation and impact of their publications.  Their research findings frequently led to paradigm shifts in fire regulations, in fire standards and in practical applications of fire safety science and engineering around the world.  Some trained research students and young fire safety engineers, produced important textbooks and monographs and often dedicated themselves to fire safety education.  They were active in international fire safety community.

 

Selection body

The recipient of the Award will be selected by the IAFSS Awards Committee that consists of Mr Dieter Brein (Chair, The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany), Dr Craig Beyler (Hughes Associates, USA), Professor Michael Delichatsios (The University of Ulster, UK), Dr Michael Spearpoint (The University of Canterbury, New Zealand) and Professor Takeyoshi Tanaka (Kyoto University, Japan)

 

Professor Kunio Kawagoe

Professor Kunio Kawagoe pioneered the development and use of scientifically based fire analysis, developing the relationship between the compartment burning rate and the size of an opening (R_b = 5.5·A·h^0.5), in a seminal paper on compartment fire modelling published in 1958.  His contributions, especially on fuel-controlled compartment fires and the structural analysis of the fire induced effects in columns and beams, laid foundation to modern fire science and engineering, and underpinned the early development of performance-based fire safety design, especially in Japan.  Professor Kawagoe was the Director of the Building Research Institute between 1969 and 1973, when he was appointed Professor in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the Science University of Tokyo.  His career included appointments of the Deanship of the Faculty at the Science University of Tokyo in 1980 and, in 1986, the Directorship of the Centre for Fire Science and Technology.  He served as an IAFSS Vice-Chairman from its founding in 1985 until 1991.  Professor Kawagoe was a role model and dedicated teacher of young fire safety engineers.  He passed away in 1994. (Extracted from T Ishii, Fire Science and Technology 14, 1994, pp i-ii, and from In Memoriam, Proceedings 5^th Fire Safety Symposium, 1997, p vii.)

 

Past recipients

The Medal was first awarded at the 4^th IAFSS Symposium in Ottawa in 1994.  Its past recipients include

 

Dr Alexander Robertson (1994, 4^th Symposium, Ottawa)

Dr Philip Thomas (1997, 5^th Symposium, Melbourne)

Mr Harold “Bud” Nelson (1999, 6^th Symposium, Poitiers)

Professor Dougal Drysdale (2002, 7^th Symposium, Worcester)

Professor Sizuo Yokoi (2005, 8^th Symposium, Beijing)

Professor Geoffrey Cox (2008, 9^th Symposium, Karlsruhe)

Professor James Quintiere (2011, 10^th Symposium, College Park)

Attention members: free access to articles from the Fire Safety Journal, the official journal of the IAFSS has now been enabled! Members can access the content here: http://www.iafss.org/fire-safety-journal/. This adds to our other outstanding membership benefits including open access to Fire Technology. You must be logged in to your IAFSS account in order to access these benefits. This benefit has been made possible thanks to an agreement made between the IAFSS and Elsevier, the publisher of Fire Safety Journal.

Please also remember to renew or upgrade your membership for next year so that you retain these outstanding member benefits!

 

Click here to view the final program

The SFPE Higher Education Committee has developed a document that is intended to provide recommendations for the development of a Model Curriculum Content for a Master of Science (MS), Master of Engineering (ME) or equivalent Degree in Fire Protection Engineering.

This document is a guideline that is intended to cover a full Master’s Degree program and not a professional development program. It assumes the student successfully complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of required course work. The document was drafted by a professionally diverse task group that included educators and practitioners from six different countries.

SFPE offers this document as a helpful guideline. The document is written in a broad fashion in an attempt to offer the most versatility. While there are key core topics that should be required, this document is not intended to imply that there is only one specific or narrow approach to the development of such programs. Multiple topics may be covered within an individual course or series of courses.

To view this document visit http://goo.gl/MA8dMe.

 

by Dougal Drysdale¹ and Jack Watts^2
1 University of Edinburgh, UK
² Fire Safety Institute, USA

A Featured Article from Fire Safety Science News # 35

It is 40 years since David Rasbash was appointed to head the new Department of Fire Engineering at Edinburgh University.  Its creation was due to the foresight of one man, Frank Rushbrook, Firemaster of Edinburgh and South-East Scotland from 1959 to 1970.  He had come to realise that the gap between the existing fire engineers – almost 100% of whom were acting and retired Fire Brigade Officers – and members of the other, well established professional engineering disciplines (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical) was rapidly becoming unbridgeable as a consequence of the rapid advances in science and technology that had been made since the Second World War.  Graduate engineers were urgently required in the UK Fire Service and Rushbrook took the bold step of proposing that a tailor-made undergraduate degree in Fire Engineering be developed as the best option to advance the capabilities of the Fire Service.

His vision was about two decades ahead of its time, but thanks to a great leap of faith by Sir Michael Swann, then Vice-Chancellor, Edinburgh University agreed to establishing the fledgling Department.  David Rasbash proved to be the ideal person to undertake the challenge of its development although when he arrived in Edinburgh it was to face a blank canvas.  Fire Protection Engineering had been taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology since the early 20th Century, but in 1973, Fire Engineering did not exist as a graduate academic discipline.  Rasbash graduated in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, London in the 1940s and had been with the Fire Research Station (FRS), Borehamwood, for over 25 years.  During this time, he worked on an astonishing range of topics, mostly at a fundamental level, applying his keen intellect and boyish enthusiasm for each one – and building up an overview of the field that we now define as “fire safety engineering”.  He was the main contributor to 50 of the Fire Research Notes that were published by FRS up until the 1970s. These included studies of gas explosions in buildings and in ducts; the properties of sprays of water droplets; the suppression of pool fires; the fundamentals of ignition and extinction; smoke production and visibility through fire gases; and the formation of carbon monoxide in compartment fires. In addition, he was closely associated with the early work on detection and served as Chairman of the European Committee on Fire Detection (CEN/WG 72). Serendipitously, in 1966, he undertook a review of the courses on Fire Technology that were then available in the United States.

At a time before the word “holistic” was in common use, it might be said that David Rasbash had a truly holistic view of “fire safety engineering”. He made this very clear in his Inaugural Lecture “New Variation on an Old Theme” [1] in which he emphasised the fact that fire phenomena – as distinct from “combustion” – had not been subjected to rigorous scientific studies.  He introduced his audience to some of the fundamentals that had been tackled after the Second World War, mainly in the UK, Japan and the USA and indicated how he saw the new department developing this research further.

However, Rushbrook’s vision was of a department that would prove a stream of graduate engineers that would enter and promote the professionalism of the Fire Service.  This required the establishment of an academic programme which could be based on a curriculum that included fire science and engineering as well as the traditional sub-disciplines associated with fire technology (sprinkler design, smoke extract systems, evacuation, risk assessment, etc.), but underpinned by a fundamental understanding of the scientific principles of fire. At that time fundamental understanding was incomplete and there were no textbooks on which a curriculum could be based. The curriculum with which the Edinburgh Masters’ Degree programme which started in 1974 was drawn up by David Rasbash and refined during the subsequent years, eventually published in Fire Safety Journal of which he was editor at the time [2]. The content of the curriculum was based on material from a wide range of sources, including the Fire Research Notes, publications from the Centre for Fire Research (National Bureau of Standards, USA), Factory Mutual Research Corporation (USA), the Building Research Institute in Japan and the active fire group at the University of Lund, Sweden, led by Professor Ove Petterson.

The material for much of the course drew on original research papers and reports, reflecting the diversity of the discipline.  Rasbash organised the International Symposium on Fire Safety of Combustible Materials that was held in Edinburgh i

In 1976, bringing together for the first time individuals from National Fire Laboratories in 8 countries who had never before had the opportunity to meet and discuss common problems and interests.  Common approaches were identified and there were clear signs of the development of a unified understanding.  In his closing remarks at the Symposium, Rasbash used a musical metaphor to describe the state of the subject at that time.  He compared it to a Sibelius symphony in which the audience becomes aware of bits of melody as the music develops, gradually being woven together to create the final melodic lines that make up the whole.

Not only was David Rasbash responsible for creating the structure of what we now call “Fire Safety Engineering”, but along with (inter alia) Philip Thomas, Kunio Kawagoe, Ove Petterson and Jim Quintiere he was one of the founder members of the IAFSS, as well as actively working towards the establishment of a professional Engineering Institute for Fire Safety Engineers in the UK.  This was eventually recognised by the UK Engineering Council who encouraged the fledgling Society of Fire Safety Engineers to combine with the Institution of Fire Engineers to develop a single body to ensure the standards in the profession.  This amalgamation took place in 2004.

Sadly, David Rasbash did not live to see this happen as he passed away after a long illness in 1997 but he will be remembered for the crucial contribution he made to Fire Safety Engineering world-wide. His legacy is evident in the professionals he mentored and the students to whom he imparted his enthusiasm and singular appreciation of the discipline.  He is recognised by the Institution of Fire Engineers by the annual award of the Rasbash Medal.

REFERENCES

1. D J Rasbash, New Variation on an Old Theme, Inaugural Lecture, University of Edinburgh, 14th November 1974 (http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/5574)
2. D J Rasbash, A modular approach to the subject of Fire Safety Engineering, Fire Safety Journal 3 31-40 (1980).

 

Visit the Registration Website

Symposium Registration Fees

Early Registration  (postmarked ON OR BEFORE December 15, 2013)*

IAFSS Members**	NZ$950 + GST	NZ$1092.50
Non-Members**	NZ$1150  + GST	NZ$1322.50
Students**	NZ$500  + GST	NZ$575.00
Sunday Workshops***	NZ$60 for 1st workshop; NZ$30 for 2nd workshop	NZ$60 1st workshop NZ$30 2nd workshop

Optional Social Events

Sunday night Feb 9:	Welcome Reception+	included
Monday night Feb 10:	Wine tasting & Barbeque at Staff club+	NZ$50
Wednesday night Feb 12:	International Antarctic Centre***	NZ$65
Thursday night Feb 13:	Banquet	Included

*Registration fees will increase after 15 December 2013

**Registration fees apply to the program from Monday 10 February to Friday 14 February and include: admission to all technical sessions, a delegate conference kit, morning and afternoon coffee breaks, lunches (including the Closing Lunch on Friday 14 February), the Sunday night 9 February Welcome reception, and the Thursday night 13 February Symposium Banquet. All attendees, including presenters, must register for the Symposium.

***Workshop registration fees apply the Sunday 9 Feburary and include: admission to workshops and lunch

Companion Program Registration Fees

Night-Time Social Events

Sunday night 9 Feb:	Welcome Reception+	NZ$40
Monday night 10 Feb:	Dinner in Annapolis+	NZ$50
Wednesday night 12 Feb:	International Antarctic Centre*	NZ$65
Thursday night 13 Feb:	Banquet at the Cardboard Cathedral	NZ$120

+On-campus events

***The Host Committee is proposing an exceptional social program. The program includes a wine tasting and barbeque at staff club on the original homestead on campus Monday night 10 February; this promises to be a most enjoyable evening with time to socialize with colleagues and stroll through the extensive gardens while sampling some of New Zealand finest wines. Wednesday night 12 February we will visit the International Antarctic Centre.  The event will include light stand-up meal and exclusive entry into the exhibits. Registration fees for both Monday and Wednesday night events include: admission to the event, lite meal and bus transportation. Everyone is encouraged to attend!

 

Official letter of invitation

Some of our international attendees will need a Visa to enter the NZ and join us at the University of Canterbury.  Most countries are eligible for the visa-waiver and do not need to apply for a visa before arrival.  Please see the New Zealand Immigration website for more information on obtaining a visa.  If you need a Visa, then you may need a letter of invitation as supporting documentation to be included in your Visa application package.

To obtain a letter of invitation, please send an email to the local Host Committee Chair (Charles Fleischmann, [email protected]) with the following information:

• Name (Last name, First Name)
• Title
• Organization
• Address
• Nationality
• Date of Birth
• Place of Birth
• Passport Number
• Issuing Authority
• Date of issue
• Date of expiry

For additional information, please contact:

Symposium Chairman
W K Chow
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Email: [email protected]

 

Host Chairman
Charles Fleischmann

University of Canterbury

Email: [email protected] or phone:  (+64) 3 364-2399

 

Poster abstracts are due October 31. One page abstracts (in PDF format) should be submitted electronically in the same way as full paper submissions, that is, through the EasyChair conference paper submission system. Please refer to the Paper Submission Instructions following the provided template. Once logged into EasyChair as an author, please choose the ‘Poster’ track to submit your poster in PDF format only.

Below is an excerpt of a recent article published by Engineering News Record describing recent efforts to rethink structural fire protection engineering for large, open-plan office spaces.

9/11 Blazes Debunk Code Assumptions About Fire Behavior in Open-Plan Offices
By Nadine M. Post, Engineering News Record

Structural fire engineering is heating up in the U.S. and Europe, thanks in large part to the “traveling fires” observed on Sept. 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center. Structural and fire-protection engineers, aware that current design assumptions do not reflect the behavior of large fires in open-plan office spaces, are developing tools to prevent unprotected structures from collapsing under extreme fire loads.

“I very much believe that certain structures should be analyzed for fire exposure” when there are specific threats or there is a high consequence of failure, says Kevin J. LaMalva, a structural and fire-protection engineer with Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, Waltham, Mass.

As a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers fire-protection technical committee, LaMalva is co-authoring “Performance-Based Design Procedures for Fire Effects on Structures.” The PBD guide is intended as a non-binding appendix for the 2016 edition of the standard “ASCE/SEI 7: Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures.”

The proposed appendix and commentary set forth performance criteria and evaluation methods for structural systems exposed to significant fires, such as traveling fires or other fires large enough to threaten the structural system.

Structural fire engineering—the interface between fire dynamics and structural engineering—is a relatively young discipline. This would be the first time fire is considered as an explicit load, like wind or seismic, in a U.S. standard.

“There is no such guidance for structural engineers in the U.S.,” says Therese McAllister, a research structural engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., and LaMalva’s co-author. Building officials need guidance to help early adopters with the approval of proposed PBDs, she adds.

When it comes to large-floor-plate open-plan office space, the 9/11 fires revealed that model building codes’ prescriptive provisions are flawed. Traditional methods for specifying fire load on the structure erroneously assume uniform burning and homogenous temperature conditions throughout a compartment, regardless of its size.

That’s not the condition in a traveling fire, in which the “flame front” spreads around the floor plate, toward openings such as broken windows, to oxygen. As it travels, the fire burns out as it consumes flammable contents, but there is no cooling behind the flames. Smoke, ahead of and behind the flames, actually preheats and post-heats the structure, causing it to lose strength.

In the U.K., researchers at the University of Edinburgh, sponsored by a $100,000 grant from multidisciplinary engineer Arup, developed a PBD method to keep large-compartment structures standing, even in an unfought fire. The work, finished in 2010, was inspired by the fires set by the highjacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC).

The fires traveled, defying design assumptions in place for 100 years. “We were surprised and at first thought it was an anomaly,” says Guillermo Rein, who led the Edinburgh research and is currently a professor of mechanical engineering at Imperial College, London.

The WTC fires were troubling, adds Rein. Large-compartment fires last longer and produce more heat, though they burn over a limited area at any one time.

Due to this behavior, conventional design approaches are not necessarily conservative, as assumed, says Rein. The research indicates that the worst-case scenario would be a fire traveling with a size 10% to 25% of the floor area.

The traveling-fire methodology uses simple analytical calculations coupled with a finite element model. Computational fluid-dynamics modeling confirms the results, says Rein. Using a PC or a laptop, engineers trained in the methodology can model the behavior of a two- to three-hour fire over an entire floor in two or three days. A computer cluster can accelerate the modeling to several hours. More costly cloud computing can almost model in real time, says Rein.

Five people are trained in applying the methodology: Rein and four engineers at Arup, including his two former Edinburgh Ph.D. students-researchers, Angus Law, currently at Arup Leeds, and Jamie Stern-Gottfried, currently at Arup Berlin.

Rein is seeking funds to produce a guide that explains the methodology. He figures it is a three-year project.

Each analysis is building-specific. This can result in a more cost-effective design, with protection tailored to the threat, says Rein. The method compliments the traditional method, he adds.

Arup has applied the approach to a half-dozen projects. It recommends contacting the authorities having jurisdiction as early as during conceptual design. The analysis is more involved and costs more than a prescriptive approach, says Arup, but it potentially increases the flexibility of the architecture while increasing the structure’s robustness.

Morgan J. Hurley, technical director for the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, Bethesda, Md., has some issues with the traveling-fire method. It is difficult to predict the way a fire will travel because travel is based on the number of openings, such as broken windows, and that is an unknown, he explains. Similarly, the distribution and type of fuel—building contents—influence fire behavior.

In response, Law says the method allows Arup to predict a range of possible scenarios for any particular building.

The Edinburgh research has been peer-reviewed, but it hasn’t gone through the full standardization process. An effort to include it in the Eurocode is beginning. Once that happens, the method will be transferable to the U.S. Says Hurley, “The fire doesn’t care if the building is in the U.K. or Spain or New York City.”

This summer, ASCE’s fire committee chair, Maria Garlock, expects to present the proposed PBD appendix to the main ASCE 7 committee for balloting. Its future is uncertain, says Garlock, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University. Seeing potential liability, structural engineers, not typically trained in fire engineering, may resist even a non-mandatory appendix.

Read the full article at: http://enr.construction.com/buildings/design/2013/0729-911-Blazes-Debunk-Code-Assumptions-About-Fire-Behavior-in-Open-Plan-Offices.asp

 

The IAFSS web team is always looking for relevant news, upcoming events and open academic positions to share with the community. Please submit suggestions to [email protected].