Structural Fire Engineering Episodes
087 - Structural FSE inspired by earthquake engineering with Negar Elhami Khorasani
Feb. 1, 2023
Performance-based engineering or the use of probabilistic methods in building design are not inventions of Fire Safety Engineering. But we sometimes tend to act like we need to 'discover' and work out everything on our own. …
086 - Experiments that changed fire science pt. 4 - Runnehamar tunnel with Haukur Ingason and Anders Lönnermark
Jan. 25, 2023
Would you rather do 20 published experiments and take your impact factors, or make one that truly changed the world of fire science? Or maybe a different way, would you pursue something that is quick, easy and gives immediat…
074 - Engineering not magic, intumescent coatings with Andrea Lucherini
Nov. 2, 2022
Intumescent coatings are not magic. They are a product of amazing engineering, a theatre of thermophysical properties that create an insulative layer that sometimes is the only thing holding fire from destroying a structure.…
070 - Fire resistance is whatever you want it to be with Piotr Turkowski
Oct. 5, 2022
Today we talk fire resistance, but unlike you have ever heard. Join me and Dr Piotr Turkowski - two fire laboratory professionals in an honest discussion about their craft. The challenges in standardization and committee wor…
066 - Fire Safe Use of Wood in Buildings with Andy Buchanan
Sept. 7, 2022
I wonder if we will be ever able to say: we know exactly how to build fire-safe buildings with mass timber. However that day may never come, each day of research brings us a little bit closer to achieving this goal. And som…
061 - Glazing in fire with Yu Wang
Aug. 2, 2022
The relation between ventilation conditions and fire severity is quite a fundamental one. You don't even have to be a fire safety engineer to realize that more air means a bigger fire. But how does air get into the compartme…
057 - Structural fire engineering with Thomas Gernay
July 6, 2022
The subject of structural fire engineering was long overdue in the podcast schedule. But once I finally got it on my agenda, I made sure to interview one of the very best there are - prof Thomas Gernay of John Hopkins Unive…
038 - Fire resistance is not always enough for timber with Daniel Brandon
Feb. 15, 2022
It is the third time we talk about mass timber and fire in this show, and I hope every time the message gets even more refined. In this episode, it is clear - fire resistance is not always enough. But why? You will learn tha…
027 - Travelling fires with Guillermo Rein
Nov. 17, 2021
If you have ever learned about the compartment fire dynamics framework, have tried zone modelling or any kind of fire modelling, you have probably noticed that as the compartments get bigger, the less uniform conditions insi…
025 - Structural fire engineering with engineered timber with Felix Wiesner
Nov. 3, 2021
In Episode 18 we have touched on the important topic of fire performance of engineered wood and its wide use in the modern built environment. Today, we follow up on this subject with Dr Felix Wiesner from the University of …
023 - Risk assessment with Maximum Allowable Damage with Jaime Cadena Gomez and David Lange
Oct. 20, 2021
Risk as a concept is well established in modern Performance-Based Design in Fire Safety Engineering. However, it comes in many flavours - from a simple calculation of consequences vs probability, through indexing methods and…
021 - Resilient design for firefighter safety with Ali Ashrafi
Oct. 5, 2021
It is hard for us, fire safety engineers, to talk to firefighters on how to do their job... Probably we even shouldn't, as we have no idea how it is to truly go there into the heat and battle fire to save lives. But it does …
018 - Engineered timber with Danny Hopkin
Sept. 15, 2021
Engineered timber is on a trajectory to become the construction material of the future. However, on that pathway there stands the fire issue. Wood burns, it is inevitable. This is something we must accept, and learn to work …
010 - Seeking the origins of standardized fire testing and ancient fire protection materials with John Gales
July 21, 2021
Did you know that the standard temperature-time curve, which is the underpinning of the fire resistance of assemblies, is over 100 years old? Once you know that, you cannot stop but think about how this affects modern constr…