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| Letter
from the Chairman
How
time flies! Less than three months remain until the start
of the 8th IAFSS Symposium in Beijing. Much has been achieved
during the past 12 months. There has been frantic activity
on all fronts – by the China Fire Protection Association
who are hosting the event, by all those preparing papers
for presentation at the meeting, by Craig Beyler, Brian
Lattimer and Dan Gottuk in choreographing the review process
and by the many session chairs who had to select two or
three referees for every paper and diplomatically extract
the reviewers’ comments within a very tight timeframe.
The number of papers that will be presented exceeds the
previous record (114) which was established at the First
Fire Safety Science Symposium in Washington in 1985. The
task that Dr Beyler and his colleagues have carried out
– and are continuing to carry out – is described
modestly in his report in this Newsletter. We are immensely
grateful to them, to the session chairs and to the referees
for all their hard work. Their efforts will ensure that
this will be a landmark event, surpassing previous symposia
in terms of sheer scientific content.
We have
been working very closely with our colleagues at the CFPA
in Beijing to ensure that all aspects of registration will
progress smoothly. There has been a delay in providing the
letters of invitation required for Visa applications, but
these will be sent out early in July. There have been the
inevitable early glitches regarding hotel reservations,
and tours etc., but these have all been resolved. I look
back to the 3rd IAFSS Symposium in Edinburgh and recall
very similar problems that had to be sorted out “on
the hoof”, so to speak. One problem that was not identified
before the “Invitation to Register” was printed
and circulated earlier this year is the fact that the prices
for the post-conference tours do not include the cost of
air travel. In retrospect, this should have been picked
up as the costs printed in the programme – particularly
for the reduced rates for parties of ten or more –
were very low indeed. I hope that this error will not dissuade
those who are visiting China for the first time from taking
advantage of the opportunities of travel after the meeting.
Please check the IAFSS website at http://www.iafss.org where
we try to ensure any changes are listed as soon as we get
notification of them from our Chinese colleagues.
The
Awards Committee has met electronically over the past 12
months and chosen the recipients of the Emmons Lectureship
(Dr Howard Baum), the Kawagoe Medal and the Thomas Silver
Medal of Excellence (for the best paper presented at the
7th Symposium). The names of the recipients of the Kawagoe
Medal and the Thomas Medal will be announced at the awards
ceremony at the Banquet. With the help of three regional
chairmen, Professor Mario Fontana’s Thesis Awards
Committee has identified three outstanding dissertations
– one from each region – that were successfully
defended during the three-year period which ended in September
2004. The outcome is reported by Professor Fontana in this
Newsletter.
The
next three months will be extremely busy for our colleagues
in Beijing finalising all the logistics and for Carole Franks
in London who is co-ordinating registrations. As I write,
40 delegates have registered through London. On its own
– i.e. without including those who have registered
directly through the CFPA – this is a very encouraging
number and gives us reason to expect that this will be the
largest and most successful symposium to date. I hope you
will do your utmost to attend and encourage colleagues to
participate too!
My colleagues
and I on the committee look forward to seeing you in Beijing
in September.
Dougal
Drysdale
January 2005 |
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8th
IAFSS Symposium Program
The
8th IAFSS Symposium, 18-23 September 2005, in Beijing CHINA
will include the Emmons Lecture by Dr. Howard Baum, seven
plenary lectures, 120 paper presentations and a poster session
including 80 posters from fire scientists around the world.
Sessions will include the full range of fire science topic
from human behaviour to fire dynamics, including both fundamental
and applied fire science contributions.
Because
of the record number of submissions, the number of papers
accepted was increased by about 50% over the previous symposium.
As a result is has been necessary to organize the papers
in three parallel sessions. The program has been planned
in an attempt to avoid conflicts of interest and delegates
should be able to plan which session to join after each
of the plenary lectures. Details are available at http://www.iafss.org
and http://2005.china-fire.com. However, moving between
sessions will be possible as the three lecture halls are
close to each other in the same building
The
paper and poster selection process was completed in early
April and included 750 reviews of 300 submissions by over
300 reviewers. All this was completed in less than four
months. Thanks are owed to all the reviewers. Without their
timely contribution of time and effort, the symposium would
not be possible.
Authors
have already provided their final manuscripts, responding
to reviewer comments and suggestions. By mid-July, authors
will review the pdf page proofs. Thanks to the efforts of
all the authors and the volume editors, Dr. Dan Gottuk and
Dr. Brian Lattimer, a CD including all papers and posters
will be available at the meeting and the hard copy volume
(w/CD) will be printed and shipped to all symposium attendees
in late December.
Thanks
to the efforts of hundreds of individuals from around the
world, an excellent technical program is in place. The symposium
will be an exciting and fun week. I look forward to seeing
all of you.
Craig
Beyler, Program Committee
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IAFSS Thesis Awards
A
total of 17 dissertations were submitted for the Thesis
Awards, 7 from Europe/Africa, and 5 each from the Americas
and Asia/Oceania. The submissions were made by the respective
research supervisors and over a period of about four months
the independent regional committees selected the regional
winners of the IAFSS Thesis Awards 2005. The decisions were
not easy as the theses were of such high standard. It is
unfortunate that only one award could be made in each region.
The
following theses were selected after much discussion:
Asia/Oceania:
Dr.
Wenguo Weng, Supervisor Prof. Y Hasemi, Department of Architecture,
School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University Okubo
3-4-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-8555, JAPAN, "A Simulative
Study on Backdraft Phenomenon in Compartment Fires"
(Selection
Committee (5 Papers): Prof. Toshisuke Hirano (Chair), Dr
Bogdan Dlugogorski, Prof. Fan Weicheng, Prof Yuji Hasemi,
Dr Ai Sekizawa)
Americas:
Dr.
Amnon Avishai Bar-Ilan, Supervisor Prof Carlos Fernandez-Pello,
University of California, 6105A Etcheverry Hall, Berkeley,
USA, "The Effects of Buoyancy on Smoldering Combustion
and its Transition to Flame"
(Selection
Committee (5 Papers): Prof. Patrick J. Pagni (Chair), Dr.
Jose L. Torero, Dr John Woycheese, Dr. Cuzzillo)
Europe/Africa:
Dr.
Susan Lamont, Arup Fire, Ove Arup & Partners, 13 Fitzroy
Street, London W1P 6BQ, UK, Supervisor: Dr A S Usmani, School
of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh,
King’s Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, Scotland, UK,
"The Behaviour of Multi-storey Composite Steel Framed
Structures in Response to Compartment Fires"
(Selection
Committee (7 Papers): Prof. Geoff Cox (Chair), Prof. Dougal
Drysdale, Prof. Mario Fontana)
Each
winner will present a paper based on his or her thesis during
the 8th IAFSS Symposium. Their Symposium Registration fees
are waived and each Award includes US $1,500 to support
expenses associated with travel and accommodation during
the Beijing meeting.
Prof.
Mario Fontana, Chair,
Thesis Awards Committee
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Nominations
to Management Committee
The
Nominating Committee, chaired by Prof J Quintiere of the
University of Maryland, USA, has proposed 24 candidates
to the Management Committee of the Association. The nominees
are as follows:
1.*
Dr V Babrauskas (Fire Science and Technology, USA)
2. Dr
C Beyler (Hughes & Associates, USA)
3. Dr
R Bill (Factory Mutual, USA)
4. Mr
D Brein (University of Karlsruhe, Germany)
5.*
Prof W Chow (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China)
6. Prof
G Cox (Building Research Establishment, UK)
7. Prof
B Dlugogorski (University of Newcastle, Australia)
8. Prof
D Drysdale (University of Edinburgh, UK)
9.*
Dr D Evans (Society of Fire Protection Engineers, USA)
10.
Prof W Fan (University of Science and Technology, China)
11.*
Dr C Fleischmann (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
12.
Prof M Fontana (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland
13.* Dr A Hamins (National Institute of Science and Technology,
USA)
14. Prof Y Hasemi (Waseda University, Japan)
15.*+
Dr Y He (University of Western Sydney, Australia)
16.
Prof P Joulain (National Centre for Scientific Research,
France)
17.
Dr B Karlsson (Fire Authority, Iceland)
18.
Dr S Kumar (Building Research Establishment, UK)
19.
Dr J Mehaffey (Forintek, Canada)
20.
Prof P Pagni (University of California at Berkeley, USA)
21.*
Dr G Proulx (National Research Council, Canada)
22.
Dr A Sekizawa (National Research Institute of Fire and
Disaster, Japan)
23.
Dr O Sugawa (Science University of Tokyo, Japan)
24.*+
Dr J Torero (University of Edinburgh, UK)
* Denotes candidates nominated to the Committee for the
first time. The remaining candidates are members of the
present Committee and have been re-nominated by the Nominating
Committee for the new term.
+ Denotes candidates who were co-opted to the Committee
at the beginning of the present term as a consequence of
the retirement of two members.
A member
of the Association may also be nominated for election to
the Management Committee by a petition signed by at least
ten other members and submitted in writing to the Honorary
Secretary. The deadline for submission of petition nominees
is 30 June 2005, and the submissions should be forwarded
to:
Ms Carole
Franks
IAFSS Secretariat Office
Interscience Communications
West Yard House
Guildford Grove, Greenwich
London SE10 8JT, UK
Or by
fax to + 44 (0)208 692 5155
In the
case of petition candidates being nominated, there will
be an election by postal vote of the members in July 2005,
to be conducted by the Honorary Secretary. The envelopes
will be opened and vote counted by the Scrutineers, Prof
Jonathan Barnett of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
USA, and Prof Vladimir Molkov of the University of Ulster,
UK. In the other instance, the nominees, as proposed by
the Nominating Committee, will be deemed to be elected to
the Management Committee without further action.
On behalf
of the International Association for Fire Safety Science,
I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere
words of thanks to the Committee members who wish to retire
in September this year, Dr P Beever, Dr J Hall, Prof T Hirano,
Prof J Quintiere, Prof R Williamson and Dr D Yung, for their
many outstanding contributions to our organisation over
many years.
Prof B Dlugogorski, Honorary Secretary,
Nominating Committee
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Efectis
– CTICM, TNO and Sintef-NBL Combine Forces
The
Europe Union is growing and has attained a market of 450
million people living in 25 different countries, which is
even larger when considering the European countries belonging
to the European Economical Space. Step by step, all buildings
and structures will be ruled by new common standards applied
throughout Europe.
As far
as research institutes and fire laboratories are concerned,
the market is no longer national but needs consideration
across the whole European area and, even more, the international
area. To be able to offer a full application range of services
with respect to fire safety product manufacturers and building
owners, as well as a comprehensive range of expertise in
the fire safety field, 3 renowned and leading European fire
safety institutes: TNO (The Netherlands), SINTEF-NBL (Norway)
and CTICM (France) have combined their forces and have created
a new group under the name "Efectis"
To offer better protection to people, environment and property,
Efectis will be involved in the main fire safety areas such
as:
• Fire Safety Engineering (high performance numerical
tools, fire risk analysis, and specific applications such
as tunnel, warehouse, car parks, off-shore structures, ships…)
• Resistance to fire (with furnaces able to accommodate
assemblies with a 9 m floor span or 5 m height, and the
RWS curve …)
• Reaction of fire (with all necessary testing facilities
for classification and FSE purposes)
• Smoke control
• Water mist and sprinklers systems
• Expert Judgements
• Certification (CE marking)
Further
information can be obtained through efectis@efectis.com
or
tel : +33(0)1 30 85 20 61.
Warringtonfiregent
Warringtonfire
has reached an agreement with the University of Gent, Belgium,
for the 'spin-off' of its fire safety testing laboratory
into a new joint venture company with warringtonfire. The
Belgium laboratory, headed by Professor Paul Vandevelde,
is very well respected as an authoritative competent laboratory
on fire safety matters within Europe. For many years the
two organisations have enjoyed an informal working collaboration.
This is now placed on a firm commercial business-footing
by way of a shared ownership of the new company, to be titled
warringtonfiregent. As the major shareholder, warringtonfire
will bring its business and commercial acumen to the benefit
of the Belgium laboratory, and business plans include the
introduction of many of the UK services into Belgium.
Critical
technical and professional staff will be transferred from
the University into the new company and the best practices
of the Warrington and Gent laboratories will be maximised
to the benefit of the joint client base. warringtonfiregent
has entered into an agreement with the University to support
its academic and research requirements within fire safety
science and engineering activities. Professor Vandevelde
will remain responsible for the Gent laboratory as a director
of warringtonfiregent.
University
of Maryland Receives Major Fire Research Grant
The United States Fire Administration has awarded a one
year, 1.1 million dollar grant to the University of Maryland
Center for Firefighters Safety Research and Development
(CFSRD) to investigate the physiological state of firefighters
during training. The goal of this study is to reduce injuries
and fatalities in training. The CFSRD is also conducting
research on firefighter location and novel communication
strategies. The Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute and the
Fire Protection Engineering Department of the A. James Clark
School of Engineering are jointly managing CFSRD in partnership
with the Small Smart Systems Center, the Human Performance
Laboratory and the MIND Lab.
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4th
International Seminar on Fire Protection Engineering (Chile)
The
Fire Protection Engineering Area of DICTUC (Chile) is organizing
the 4th International Seminar on Fire Protection Engineering.
This year the seminar will focus on the Behaviour of Wood
Structures in Fire. The topics to be discussed are
• Wood Burning and Fire Growth.
• Behaviour of Heavy and Light Frame Wooden Structures.
• Fire Safety Regulations.
• The Modelling of Structures in Fire.
• Fire Tests of Wood Building Elements.
The
speakers will be prestigious professionals and researchers
from Chile, Canada (Forintek) and Scotland (University of
Edinburgh). The seminar will be held in Santiago - Chile,
from June 22 to June 24, 2005. More information can be found
at http://www.dictuc.cl/ipf/capingles.htm
Fire Safety in Terrestrial Passenger Transportation
The
University of Cantabria (Spain) will host the International
Technical Congress Fire Safety in Terrestrial Passenger
Transportation on October 20, 2005. The Congress will address
fire safety of passengers in highway and railway transportation
systems with particular emphasis on vehicle and infrastructure
design, material selection, active and passive systems,
fire computer modelling, etc. For information regarding
registration, accommodation and the preliminary programme
please visit: http://grupos.unican.es/gidai .
4th International Workshop on Structures in Fire (SiF’06)
The
4th International Workshop on Structures in Fire (SiF’06)
will be held May 11-12, 2006 at the University of Aveiro
in Portugal. SiF Workshops provide an international forum
where experts in fire resistance research can present their
research activities and receive feedback from their colleagues.
A summary (abstract) of at least one page must be sent to
jm.franssen@ulg.ac.be before January 31, 2006. Notification
of acceptance of papers will be made by February 15. Accepted
papers must be submitted in word-file and pdf-file formats
to pvreal@civil.ua.pt before March 31, 2006. More information
can be found at http://www.civil.ua.pt/sif06.htm
6th International Conference on Performance-based
Codes and Fire Safety Design Methods
Abstracts
are now being accepted for SFPE’s 6th International
Conference on Performance-based Codes and Fire Safety Design
Methods, which will be held June 14-16, 2006 in Tokyo. The
conference will present the state-of-the-art in performance-based
code approaches and engineering design methods. Papers will
be presented on newly emerging technologies, as well as
perspectives on approaches that have worked well, and approaches
that have not worked as well as originally desired.
Over the last ten years, this conference has earned a reputation
among the fire protection engineering community as the pre-eminent
event for information on the leading-edge technology in
the areas of performance-based codes and engineering design
methods. Abstracts are invited on subjects relating to current
developments and observations relating to the use or implementation
of performance-based codes or fire safety design methods.
A call for papers is now available with abstracts due on
July 30, 2005 at
http://www.sfpe.org/sfpe30/omnisam/event/eventreg_info.cfm?product_id=296,
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