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Agreement
between BRE Trust & IAFSS to make UK FRS Research Notes
Available Online
A recent
agreement between the BRE Trust and IAFSS will make the
UK Fire Research Notes collection available to researchers
via the internet. BRE will maintain copyrights to the collection
which will be made available to the research community free
of charge. As noted by Dr. John Burdett of the BRE Trust,
the availability of the Fire Research Notes collection "has
been brought about by IAFSS and the BRE Trust as charities
working together to provide a resource to the international
fire safety and science communities."
The
Fire Research Notes (FRN) collection includes approximately
one thousand reports produced by the UK Fire Research Station
(FRS). At this time plans are being made to scan and catalog
all the reports. The FRN collection will then be made available
via the web using the same technology developed for the
online IAFSS bibliographic database.
The
FRN collection is of immense historical and scientific importance
to the fire science community. Much of the research that
has been done in the fire science community has roots in
work done at FRS since the 1950's. Based upon the technical
leadership of Phillip Thomas and the inspired work of many
FRS researchers, FRS truly provided a substantive foundation
for modern fire science that will now be readily available.
Thanks
are due to the BRE Trust for this generous and visionary
contribution to the fire safety science community, and to
Geoff Cox and Bodzio Dlugogorski, who championed this effort
on behalf of IAFSS over many years.
The
current plan is to accomplish the scanning and cataloging
of the reports by a student this year. Then these reports
will be developed into a web-based resource by IAFSS volunteers.
A sponsor for the student work is being sought. If your
organization would like to sponsor a student to do this
work in 2007, please contact Craig Beyler.
Web-based
Bibliographic Database of IAFSS Symposium Papers is in Beta
Testing
Making
the work published in IAFSS symposium proceedings more available
is an ongoing priority at IAFSS. This year, IAFSS takes
this activity onto the web through our new online IAFSS
bibliographic database. The database is currently in beta
testing at http://iafss.haifire.com/. Feel free to visit
the site and try it out. Any and all feedback on the site
is most welcome.
The database includes bibliographic/abstract data for all
full papers published in all eight of the IAFSS fire safety
science proceedings.
The database
supports author and keyword searches, as well as text search
capabilities. The online database makes finding important
IAFSS content fast and easy. It is a major first step in
bringing IAFSS content to life online.
The
database was developed by Terry Fay of Hughes Associates
with assistance from Matthew Beyler, Jennifer Steppan, and
John Cutonilli. Further developments on the web are in the
works.
LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN
As we
all recognize, the mainstream of scientific literature has
made the transition to electronic media. I am proud to announce
that bibliographic entries and abstracts for all IAFSS symposium
papers are now available online. After a brief beta test
period, the database will be accessible via www.iafss.org
(see the article for further details). This is the beginning
of a project to make IAFSS symposium papers more readily
available. Further steps to ensure that the database contents
will be recognized by scholarly search engines are underway.
I am
also proud to announce a recent agreement between the BRE
Trust and IAFSS that will make the UK Fire Research Notes
collection available to researchers online. The collection
of one thousand reports will be scanned and indexed for
rapid retrieval. While BRE will maintain the copyrights,
the intention is to make the collection electronically available
to the fire safety and fire science communities free of
charge. The collection is an especially important fire safety
science resource. See the article for additional details.
In addition,
papers from the fourth through the sixth symposia have been
scanned and OCR'd. Plans are in the works to release a CD
with all papers from the fourth to the eighth symposia and
bibliographies/abstracts for papers from the first through
third symposia. The CD will be searchable by author, keyword,
or full text search. Additional work remains to include
full papers from the first through third symposia for which
the copyrights are owned by the volume publishers.
Prof.
Jose Torero, the IAFSS webmaster, is investigating the process
of bringing e-commerce to the IAFSS website. This would
allow direct access to individual papers online. It would
also support and simplify symposium registration, book purchases,
and payment of membership dues.
Of course,
the central focus of IAFSS is our triennial symposium. The
planning of the ninth symposium in Karlsruhe Germany, 22-26
September 2008, is proceeding smoothly under the leadership
of Local
Arrangements Chair Dieter Brein, Program Chair Anthony Hamins,
Volume Editor Bjorn Karlsson, and Poster Chair Charley Fleischmann
The Call for Papers will be issued in April 2007. See the
article on symposium preparations for further details.
As you
can see, there is a lot going on at IAFSS right now. If
you can contribute to any of the activities or have ideas
for new activities, please contact me
Craig
Beyler
Professor
Charley Fleischmann to Chair Redesigned Poster Session for
9th IAFSS Symposium
Professor
Charley Fleischmann has been appointed as the Poster Session
Chairman for the 9th IAFSS Symposium in Karlsruhe. The poster
session at the Karlsruhe will be substantially enhanced
over prior poster sessions as all aspects of the process
have been updated.
Changes
begin with the submission date for poster abstracts moving
to 15 May 2008, after the full paper selection process is
fully complete. This will allow the poster session to feature
more recent and ongoing work. The accepted posters will
be published on the symposium website before the symposium
to allow attendees to preview and select posters to be visited
during the poster session.
The
poster session will be a major midweek symposium event that
will celebrate the active research in our field. Dieter
Brein, the local committee chair has promised that local
beer and refreshments will play a role in the poster session.
Charley will be organizing review panels to select winners
for a series of poster awards. These panel members will
rove the hall, judging and selecting the superior posters
for recognition. Awards will be announced and presented
at the symposium banquet Thursday evening.
The
poster session will be a major event of the symposium week.
We thank Charley for taking on the chairmanship role. If
you are interested in assisting Charley, feel free to contact
him or Craig Beyler.
Preparations
for the 9th IAFSS Symposium Continue on Track
Preparations
for the 9th IAFSS Symposium in Karlsruhe Germany, 22-26
September 2008, are proceeding smoothly under the leadership
of Local Arrangements Chair Dieter Brein, Program Chair
Anthony Hamins, and Volume Editor Bjorn Karlsson.
Arrangements for university meeting facilities and hotels
have been made, and the Local Arrangements Committee is
up and running. The Call for Papers will be issued in April
2007.
An author's
website will again be used to provide schedule information,
preparation instructions, a paper template, and other author
resources. Again, papers will be submitted electronically
via a submission web site. Program Chair Anthony Hamins
is developing his committee to run the paper evaluation
process. Invitations to act as reviewers for the symposium
will be distributed next fall. This will put the army of
reviewers in place to perform the hundreds of reviews needed
during December 2007 and January 2008 after the full paper
submission deadline on 3 December 2007.
Bjorn
Karlsson, the volume editor, is reviewing the editorial
procedures successfully used by Dan Gottuk and Brian Lattimer
in the last symposium. Bjorn is planning to repeat the quick
publication of the proceedings within three months of the
symposium achieved in the 8th IAFSS Symposium.
NEWS
FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS
FORUM
Workshop on Establishing the Scientific Foundation for Performance-Based
Fire Codes
The
International Forum of Fire Research Directors (FORUM) is
a group of the Directors of fire research organizations
throughout the world which aim to reduce the burden of fire
through international cooperation on fire research. The
desirability of having a roadmap to advance the scientific
foundation for performance-based fire safety design (PBD)
was agreed upon at the 2005 FORUM meeting in Germany. Representatives
from the FORUM membership and other invited technical experts
gathered at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) in Gaithersburg on April 5-7, 2006, to develop a
common, international vision for how a scientific foundation
might be structured, which parts of the foundation are likely
to be robust and where gaps are likely to exist into the
foreseeable future. It was recognized that performance-based
fire safety design already exists and is practiced in many
parts of the world today, and that our current tools and
level of understanding are adequate to support certain classes
of performance-based fire safety design; however, other
significant PBD applications were identified that exceed
the capabilities of these tools. A vision for the next generation
of performance-based design tools and a list of research
priorities developed. A summary of the activities and justification
for the vision and research priorities are contained in
the recently published NIST report: NIST SP 1061, “FORUM
Workshop on Establishing the Scientific Foundation for Performance-Based
Fire Codes: Proceedings”.
The
Fire Protection Research Foundation
The
Fire Protection Research Foundation has a number of projects
underway that are of interest to IAFSS members. One project,
with project contractor Batelle, entails developing a guidance
document for NFPA Committees to assist them in integrating
risk concepts into NFPA codes and standards. The document
will include practical guidance on evaluation of proposals
using a risk framework to address new technologies, cost
benefit issues, new hazards and level of hazards. Another
project, with project contractor the Health and Safety Laboratory
of the UK, is developing a comprehensive evaluation methodology
for determining the suitability of models to accurately
simulate the dispersion of vapours emanating from accidental
spills of LNG.
On December
12 and 13, members of the fire protection community met
in Chicago to discuss research needs to address three critical
issues facing NFPA Committees responsible for sprinkler
standards: single point design criteria, protection requirements
for compact mobile shelving storage and delivery times for
small dry pipe sprinkler systems. The Foundation intends
to initiate projects to address these issues.
University
of Canterbury
Prof.
Andy Buchanan has become the inaugural appointment to the
Chair of Timber Design and will oversee a team of inter-disciplinary
researchers working with industry to investigate the fire
safety, earthquake resistance, durability and sustainability
of new timber construction systems for buildings up to six
storeys. The new structures will have solid timber beams,
columns and walls pre-manufactured from glue laminated timber
and laminated veneer lumber, assembled on site with steel
connection devices and pre-stressing cables. Other components
will be made from radiata pine and douglas fir timber, and
plywood. The chair is jointly funded by the forestry industry
and the Government.
New
Fire Testing Laboratory for the Middle-East
The
Dubai Civil Defence (DCD) and Bodycote warringtonfire (part
of Bodycote Testing Group, UK) have entered into a Memorandum
of Understanding to provide a Centre Excellence for fire
safety testing and approvals of products in Dubai, UAE.
This service will be delivered from a new laboratory that
will be
constructed at the DCD’s training centre at Awir.
The laboratory, which will be operated by Bodycote warringtonfire,
should be fully commissioned within the new purpose built
building by early 2007. For further information contact:
Amal Tamim, Bodycote warringtonfire (Middle East) Tel: +971
(50) 5061995
amal.tamim@bodycote.com; Gerry Higgins, Bodycote Testing
Group Tel: +44 131 3331733; or Robert Jackson, Bodycote
Testing Group (Middle East) Tel: +971 (4) 3332201
New
Book by Hasofer, Beck and Bennetts
A New
book entitled “Risk Analysis in Building Fire Safety
Engineering” by A. Hasofer, V.R. Beck and I.D. Bennetts
has been published by Elsevier. The book bridges the gap
between risk assessment and fire safety engineering. As
all required knowledge for Probability and Statistics for
Fire Engineering is included in the preliminary chapters,
the book is suitable for teaching Fire Engineering components
in a wide range of engineering courses for senior graduates
and for postgraduate students of Fire Engineering. It will
also serve as a comprehensive reference for professionals.
The book describes the theory and the models involved in
risk analysis, and includes case studies of multiple fire
scenarios. Building fire safety and human behavioural responses
to these scenarios show the benefits of risk-based fire
safety design. More information is available at http://books.elsevier.com/us//quality/us/subindex.asp?
RESEARCH-POSITION OPENINGS
Faculty
Position - University of Maryland
The
Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University
of Maryland College Park offers a challenging opportunity
in fire protection engineering education and research. Fire
safety embraces many topics including the behavior of fire
and smoke; the interaction of people with fire, structures
and the environment; fire hazard and risk analysis; and
fire safety design, regulation and investigation.
Applications
are invited for a tenure track position at the Assistant
or Associate Professor level. The Chair must hold an M.S.
in Fire Science or related field or a master's degree and
the EFO. Experience in course development and on-line teaching
is a plus.
The applicant should have a doctorate in a relevant discipline,
a proven record in teaching and research and preferably
some fire protection background The position requires teaching
at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and establishing
a successful externally funded research program. The University
of Maryland is an Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Employer
with a strong institutional commitment to the achievement
of diversity among its faculty and staff. Women and minorities
are especially encouraged to apply for this position.
The
Department offers the only ABET accredited B.S. Degree in
Fire Protection Engineering in the United States. The graduate
program offers a research M.S. degree and a professional
Master of EngineeringThe Department has an active Ph.D.
program with degrees awarded through other engineering departments.
In the fall of 2006, the Department plans to move into newly
renovated and expanded offices and laboratories. Access
is also available to additional fire facilities on campus
and is in proximity to major government fire laboratories.
Fire Protection Engineering is one of eight departments
in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University
of Maryland at College Park. The engineering school has
approximately 200 full-time faculty and a research budget
of more than $50 million. College Park is located in the
Washington DC metropolitan area.
Applicants
should send a full curriculum vita, including a list of
publications, a representative article, and the names and
addresses of three references to:
Dr. James A. Milke, Chair of Search Committee, Department
of Fire Protection Engineering
1137 Martin Hall, University of Maryland, College Park,
MD 20742-3031, USA
Phone: (301) 405-3993, FAX: (301) 405-9383, milke@.umd.edu,
http://www.fpe.umd.edu
Full consideration will be given to applications received
by January 31, 2007. Applications received thereafter may
be considered. The position is for the Fall 2007 semester.
Chair
of Fire Science - Columbia Southern University
Columbia
Southern University, an online university, located in the
scenic Gulf Coast Community of Orange Beach, AL, USA, is
seeking a Chair of Fire Science. This full-time resident
position will develop and teach courses, and coordinate
the activities of the Fire Science faculty.
This is a 12 month on-campus position. Information about
Columbia Southern University can be found at www.columbiasouthern.edu.
Please email a letter of interest and a resume that includes
at least three references to Dr. Joe Manjone, Provost at
drmanjone@columbiasouthern.edu. For additional information,
please e-mail or telephone Dr. Joe Manjone at + 251 981
3771.
Fire
Science and Engineering Professionals at Hughes Associates,
Inc
Hughes
Associates, Inc (HAI)., Fire Science and Engineering seeks
entry level and early career fire science and engineering
professionals at the BS, MS, and PhD levels. Specific areas
of concentration sought include: 1) fire protection design,
2) fire modeling and analysis, 3) laboratory research, and
4) fire model development (strong mathematics, Fortran 95,
and Linux background.
HAI
is an international fire science and engineering firm, based
in Baltimore MD. Positions to be filled are primarily in
the Baltimore office, but openings exist at other offices.
HAI is involved in all areas of fire science and engineering
from research and development to fire hazard analysis to
fire protection design. HAI has a research laboratory in
Baltimore and we are active in model/software development
and use. Hughes Associates provides a stimulating work environment
with interaction with a highly qualified professional staff
of nearly 200 people. HAI encourages continuing professional
development and publication. Further information about the
company is available at www.haifire.com. Applications should
be e-mailed to Dr. Craig Beyler (cbeyler@haifire.com).
Faculty Position - Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The
Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic
Institute invites applications at the associate or full
professor level for a tenure\tenure-track faculty position
beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year. Required qualifications
include: an earned doctorate in Mechanical Engineering,
Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering,
Fire Protection Engineering, or a closely related field;
vision and passion for growing our Ph.D. program, a demonstrated
record of scholarly research; experience advising graduate
thesis and dissertations; a strong commitment to teaching;
and excellent communication skills.
The
position is in the general area of Fire Protection Engineering
and the primary areas of specialty interest include computational
modeling; industrial fire protection and explosions; forensic
analysis; building fire safety; fire protection systems;
performance-based design; structural; fire risk analysis;
and combustion. Candidates in other areas will be considered.
The
successful candidate will be responsible for teaching courses
and advising M.S. thesis and Ph.D. dissertations in traditional
areas of fire protection engineering. The candidate will
be expected to develop and sustain externally funded research
programs that are accompanied by scholarly activities. Applications
from women and minority candidates are especially encouraged.
For full consideration, applicants must send curriculum
vitae, statement of teaching and research interests, and
a list of five professional references by February 1, 2007
to:
Kathy
A. Notarianni, Professor and Head,
Department of Fire Protection Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute / 100 Institute Road, Worcester,
MA 01609, USA
PhD
Scholarship in Structural Fire Engineering at University
of Canterbury
The
Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Canterbury
is offering a PhD scholarship in Structural Fire Engineering,
as part of the Future Building System research project.
The candidate will be investigating the fire performance
of innovative reinforced concrete building systems which
include a large number of precast and prestressed concrete
components. The ideal candidate for this scholarship will
have a good degree in structural engineering, with a further
qualification in fire engineering. Some experience in using
structural fire analysis programs (such as SAFIR or VULCAN)
will be an added advantage. For candidates with a previous
degree in fire engineering, the target duration of the project
is 3 years. Those without any fire engineering qualifications
will require an additional year to take fire engineering
courses. Closing date: 31 January 2007. In order to register
your interest and to discuss the research in more detail,
contact Dr Rajesh Dhakal rajesh.dhakal@canterbury.ac.nz
or Prof Andy Buchanan andy.buchanan@canterbury.ac.nz.
OBITUARIES
Sadly
the two renowned Japanese fire scientists who made great
contributions to the fire research and technology community
passed away recently.
Prof. Hikaru Saito, Professor Emeritus, Chiba University,
at the age of 76 on 16th November 2006
Prof.Saito graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1953
and received Dr.Eng degree in steel structures in 1958.
He then joined Building Research Institute and started research
on structural fire safety of especially metal structures.
He served the Head of BRI’s Fire Safety Division from
1966 to 1971 and moved to Chiba University. He taught and
studied at Chiba University for almost 25 years and educated
great numbers of fire experts. He was one of the first to
study the mechanical behavior of whole frame of metal construction
in fire and wrote numbers of landmark research report. He
was also the Japanese delegate to ISO/TC92 in the 1990s.
Condolences may be sent to his wife, Ms. Tokie Saito, Sakuragaoka
2-30-901, Setagaya-Ku, Tokyo, 156-0054, Japan.
Prof.
Toshio Terai, Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University, at the
age of 76 on 2nd December 2006
Prof.Terai
graduated from Kyoto University in 1953, and studied at
Fukui University, Kyoto University, and Kinki University.
His research interest covered quite wide range of building
physics and achieved significant contribution in smoke movement
and control, fire behavior of concrete, mass and heat transfer
in building assemblies, ventilation and acoustics. He was
perhaps one of the first in the world to be successful in
calculating Navier-Stokes Equation numerically. His CFD
work on the air movement in an enclosure first appeared
in Journal in 1955. In this study he used a kind of abacus.
He
educated great numbers of researchers and engineers in fire
and environment, including Prof.Takayuki Matsushita of Kobe
University, and Prof.Kazunori Harada of Kyoto University.
Condolences may be sent to his wife, Ms. Yoko Terai, Kawashima-sakurazonomachi
43, Nishigyo-Ku, Kyoto-City, 615-8114, Japan.
Yuji Hasemi, Waseda University
CONFERENCES
Second
International Symposium on Fire Investigation Science and
Technology
The
Second International Symposium on Fire Investigation Science
and Technology was held June 26-28, 2006 at the University
of Cincinnati. Delegates and speakers came from all over
the world to participate in the 2nd offering of this unique
symposium. ISFI 2006 was designed to foster a two-way dialogue
between the fire scientists and the “in-the-field”
fire investigator. The conference was structured to foster
lively debate and interaction between presenters and delegates.
46 Speakers from 12 countries made presentations. Highlights
included:
- Fire
Dynamics - Dougal Drysdale
-
The Principles Of Electrical Fires - Vytenis Babrauskas,
Ph.D.
-
Unventilated Compartment Fires - Christopher L. Mealy,
Daniel T. Gottuck
-
Comparison Of Gasoline Weathering On Carpet Samples Exposed
To Various Thermal Environments, Jamie L. Ferrino-McAllister,
MScFPE, PE, CFEI, Douglas J. Carpenter, MScFPE, CFEI,
PE, Richard J. Roby, P.E., Ph.D.
-
Case Study Application Of The Scientific Method To Origin
Determination And Fire Spread Analysis, Christopher B.
Wood
-
Fraction Vaporization Of Ignitable Liquids- Flash Point
And Ignitability Issues –Patrick M. Kennedy, CFEI,
CFPS, MIFireE, Andrew T. Armstrong, Ph.D., FABC, FAAFS
-
The Mythology Of Arson Investigation - John J. Lentini,
CFEI, F-ABC
The
ISFI 2006 Proceedings, reissued in a 2nd Electronic Edition
(CD-Rom format), can be purchased through the National Association
of Fire Investigators at www.nafi.org. This 500 page volume
contains the papers from each presentation. ISFI 2006 was
sponsored by the National Association of Fire Investigators
(NAFI), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA),
Eastern Kentucky University, University of Cincinnati, and
the British Fire Service College.
Details
and the Call for Papers for ISFI 2008 will be announced
at in late January, 2008. Visit www.isficonference.com or
www.nafi.org for more details. |
