Newsletter No 25,July 2008: The International Assocation of Fire Safety Science

IN THIS ISSUE INVITATION TO KARSRUHE Chairman’s Letter 9th IAFSS Technical Programme Program Committee, 9th IAFSS Symposium, Sept. 2008, Karlsruhe, Germany Update on Poster Session at the 9th IAFSS Symposium Sponsorship Opportunity Awards Pre-Symposium Sunday Workshops Report from the Editor of the 9th IAFSS Symposium Volume WELCOME TO KARLSRUHE, GERMANY IAFSS Seeks Bids for the 11th International Symposium to be Held in Asia-Oceana in 2014 IAFSS Joins CrossRef and Assigns DOI’s to all papers in Fire Safety Science	NEWS FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS University of Ulster: Hydrogen Safety Developments FSE Studies at Ghent University, Belgium Lund University Earthquake Damages Sichuan Fire Research Institute (SFRI) "Structures in Fire" Community 2008 Bigglestone Award Winner The Fire Protection Research Foundation Jobs CONFERENCE NOTICEBOARD CIB W14 on Fire SFPE Annual Meeting: October 2008 Smoke Control in Buildings and Tunnels Fire Protection Research Foundation Symposium FIRE and MATERIALS 2009 International Conference on Applications of Structural Fire Engineering Fire Retardant Technologies (FRT09) Human Behaviour in Fires: 12th European Meeting on Fire Retardant Polymers
SYPOSIUM SPECIAL INVITATION TO KARSRUHE We invite you to attend the Ninth International Symposium on Fire Safety Science to be held at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (formerly the University of Karlsruhe) 21-26 September 2008. This is the premier fire safety science symposium in the world and has been organized triennially since 1985 by the International Association for Fire Safety Science. Meeting and hotel booking can be accomplished via links from this website. Meeting registration will include online access to the full papers and posters, as well as a bound copy of the proceedings, Fire Safety Science Vol. 9, to be produced and distributed after the symposium. Please note that early registration ends 21 July, after which the fees go up. The program will include 116 fully peer-reviewed papers over the five days of the symposium, including six invited lectures (see the Program page for details). The symposium activities begin on Sunday 21 September with several workshops in the afternoon and a Welcome Reception Sunday evening. In addition to the technical sessions, there are numerous social activities that provide opportunities to meet informally with colleagues and friends. There is a rich array of activities available in the companion program and there is much to see in Karlsruhe, and the Black Forest and Alsace regions. The symposium ends with a Farewell Luncheon on Friday. The poster session, to be held Wednesday afternoon, provides an excellent opportunity to interact individually with researchers about their most recent work. The afternoon session will include intellectually stimulating discussion, along with German hospitality. The afternoon will be culminated by presentations for the best posters and the best fire science images. The social highlight of the meeting is the Banquet on Thursday evening, always a memorable gala event. The most convenient airport serving Karlsruhe for most visitors will be Frankfurt Airport. There is an excellent train service from Frankfurt Airport to Karlsruhe. Arrangements with 14 central hotels have been made to facilitate your booking accommodations. Information on all hotels is provided on this website and a link for booking the hotels is provided as well. All the hotels are within walking distance of the meeting facilities at the Audimax at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In addition all attendees will be provided with tram passes for week which serve the hotels and the university. We hope you will join us at the symposium. We can assure you it will be a most productive and enjoyable week. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us. Dieter Brein, Local Symposium Committee Chairman Craig Beyler, Chairman IAFSS Carole Franks, Secretariat IAFSS http://iafss.org/html/karlsruhe/home.htm LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN The 9th IAFSS Symposium is in less than three months and the tempo of preparation is definitely on the upswing. The paper selection is complete and final editorial corrections are underway. The program will have three parallel tracks and the usual plenary papers. The response to the call for posters has been very strong and the poster session promises to be a great event. We have a great slate of Sunday workshop offerings and online meeting and hotel registration is underway. The symposium website is accessible from the IAFSS home page. It should have any information you may need. As planning continues the site will be updated to include more and more information. The detailed symposium schedule and the list of posters will be added soon. Later, links to the actual papers will be added for members and registrants and links to the actual posters will be added. Suggestions on additions to the symposium website are very welcome. I particularly appreciate the interactive Google map on the hotel accommodations page that shows all the meeting venues, the hotels, and the tram stops. The symposium promises to be an exciting and productive time. I look forward to seeing many of you in Karlsruhe. I am also very proud of the progress that IAFSS has made in joining the electronic ago. Since the last newsletter IAFSS has joined CrossRef (www.crossref.org ), the organization that maintains the digital object identifier (DOI) system for the scientific and technical community. All the IAFSS symposium papers from Vol 1 to the present have been assigned DOI’s and are fully integrated into the DOI system. The DOI’s can be seen in the IAFSS Bibliographic Database (http://iafss.haifire.com/index.htm or via the link on the IAFSS website). The DOI system provides a means for finding the paper and for being directed to the IAFSS Bibliographic Database online. Moving forward IAFSS will be including the citations from each IAFSS paper in the DOI/CrossRef system to facilitate forward linking and citation indexing. You will notice when you see the next volume of Fire Safety Science, the formal ISSN name, that the DOI’s of references are included in the citations. This link will allow an electronic reader to go directly to the electronic source of that paper. Everyone can access and read the bibliographic information and the abstract, but of course, the publisher has control over electronic access to the full paper. This will further enhance the value of IAFSS papers to researchers. Thanks to the authors of papers for bearing with us as everyone learned how to find and implement DOI’s in the citations. Craig Beyler 9th IAFSS Technical Programme The 9th IAFSS Symposium will take place 21-26 September 2008 in Karlsruhe, Germany. The Symposium is a premier meeting for the dissemination and discussion of peer reviewed scientific research focused on the prevention and mitigation of fire losses. The Symposium will include the Emmons Lecture, five plenary lectures, three student paper presentations and 106 oral paper presentations. A poster session will be held with contributions from fire scientists from around the world, and a full-day of technical workshops will take place on September 21, the Sunday before the Symposium. The total number of papers submitted for the 9th Symposium was 202. To improve the quality of the Proceedings, the allowed length of papers has been increased substantially as compared to previous Symposia (35% increase in print area through an increased page size). Papers were submitted on a broad range of fundamental and applied topics including: Structural Fire Performance, Compartment Fires, Suppression, Ignition, Fire Dynamics, Fire Chemistry, Fire Measurements, Detection, Evacuation, Human Behavior, Statistics and Special Applications. Papers were accepted based on their quality and originality. The paper review process involved 296 peer reviewers. A total of 595 reviews were solicited and 575 reviews were completed. Each paper received at least 2 technical reviews and the average number of reviews per paper was 2.7. The rate of acceptance was about 50 %. The accepted papers were nearly evenly divided between Europe, Oceania and the Americas. A writing mentor team headed by Ron Alpert offered assistance for those papers that could benefit from English language editing. Final versions of the papers were submitted to the Volume Editor, Bjorn Karlsson on June 1. The program will include 4½ days of technical presentations. There will be 6 invited presentations and 3 student award presentations. The keynote presentations will be scheduled early in the technical sessions, followed by typically three parallel sessions. A full list of accepted papers is available now, and. the schedule of the technical program will be available soon on the Symposium website: (http://www.iafss.org/html/karlsruhe/home.htm). Keynote Plenary Speakers selected by the Program Committee were awarded to: • Vytenis Babrauskas (Fire Science and Technology Inc., Issaquah WA, USA), "Research on Electrical Fires: The State of the Art" • Professor Andy Buchanan (University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, "The Challenges of Predicting Structural Performance in Fires") • Professor Reinhard Grabski (Institute of Fire Department Saxony-Anhalt, Heyrothsberge, Germany, "Fire Safety Science in Germany - A Status Report about Research Activities and Technological Requirements") • Dr. George Hadjisophocleous (Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada, "Development of Design Fires for Performance-Based Fire Safety Design") • Dr. Haukur Ingason (SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Borås, Sweden, "State of the Art of Tunnel Fire Research") • Professor Takeyoshi Tanaka (Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, “Risk-Based Selection of Design Fires to ensure an Acceptable Level of Evacuation Safety") The student awards were selected by a special committee headed by Mario Fonatana. The awards were based on an evaluation of the quality of recent dissertations on any fire science related topic. The winners were invited to submit papers based on their dissertation. The awardees and the titles of their papers are: • Ali S. Rangwala, WPI USA, “Flame Spread Analysis Using a Variable B-Number” • Markus Knochbloch, ETH Switzerland, “Local Buckling Behavior of Steel Sections Subjected to Fire” • Johannes Dimyadi, AstraVision-Solutions New Zealand, “Sharing Building Information using the IFC Data Model for FDS Fire Simulation” Program Committee, 9th IAFSS Symposium, Sept. 2008, Karlsruhe, Germany A Hamins, Chair, NIST, USA M Bundy, Deputy Chair, NIST, USA KE Boyce, U Ulster, UK WK Chow, HK Polytechnic U, China NA Dembsey, WPI, USA J-M Franssen, U Liege, Belgium J Hietaniemi, VTT, Finland TR Hull, U Central Lancs, UK J Milke, U Maryland, USA A Sekizawa, U Tokyo, Japan M Simonson, SP, Sweden JL Torero, U Edinburgh, UK H-Z Yu, FM Global, USA D Yung, Yung & Associates, Canada Update on Poster Session at the 9th IAFSS Symposium Response The program committees’ objective was to expand the poster session at the 9th IAFSS Symposium to be held September 21-26, 2008 in Karlsruhe, Germany and this has been achieved. Over 150 posters and images were submitted via the website which resulted in the rapid increase in the number of poster reviewers. Ultimately every poster received 2 reviews and we were pleased with the quality of the abstracts submitted. When all the dust had settled, 120 posters and 18 images have been accepted for display at the symposium which has prompted the program committee to split the poster session into two. We greatly appreciate your contributions to the poster session. Expanded Poster Session The poster session is being designed to foster a collegial environment where authors and attendees can discuss their research interest and make or renew relationships to help foster collaboration. The program committee is keen to increase participation in the poster session and drinks and nibbles will be provided. Details of the expanded poster sessions are being worked out and more details will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. Awards For the first time, there will be three awards given out for the posters presented at the symposium. Two new awards will be given for the Best Poster Award and Best Student Poster Award. Awards will be based on technical content, organization, and visual presentation. A special Audience Choice Award will be awarded based on popular vote of the attendees. Sponsorship Opportunity The program committee is keen to increase participation in the poster session and are looking for organizations that are interested in sponsoring either the food and drinks or one of the poster session awards. Anyone interested in sponsorship should contact Charley Fleischmann, (Poster Session Chair) charles.fleischmann@canterbury.ac.nz. Awards For the first time, there will be three awards given out for the posters presented at the symposium. Two new awards will be given for the Best Poster Award and Best Student Poster Award. Awards will be based on technical content, organization, and visual presentation. A special Audience Choice Award will be awarded based on popular vote of the attendees. Pre-Symposium Sunday Workshops For the first time ever, three workshops will be held in conjunction with the 9th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 21-26 September, 2008. The workshops will be held concurrently from 1:00 to 5:00 PM on Sunday, September 21, 2008. The workshop topics and organizers include: • Egress modeling, organized by Dr. Steve Gwynne • Flame spread modeling, organized by Prof. Nick Dembsey and Mr. Simo Hostikka • Structural fire engineering, organized by Dr. Susan Lamont The egress workshop concerns the application and development of egress models. It is designed for students, researchers, model developers, model users and those that sit in judgment of the results produced. It will primarily relate to the availability of suitable data and the validation process required of the data, the models, the users and the third party observers. The flame spread modeling workshop will focus on two key aspects of modeling fire spread in the context of modern CFD-based fire modeling. The fundamentals discussion will focus on methods to improve engineering tools based on sound science, while a discussion of common engineering concerns will focus on model parameter estimation in the context of practical fire scenarios. The structural fire engineering workshop will aim to highlight the key challenges in this field, to understand the current state of the art and to discuss a way forward. A range of expert panelists will make short presentations on key aspects of structural fire engineering to prompt discussion and debate among the workshop participants. The workshops will be held in meeting rooms within the Novotel hotel. A fee of 35 Euros will be charged to offset the cost of holding the workshops. Please make your plans now to participate in one of the workshops. Each workshop is restricted to 50 participants, so you should register early to assure a place in the workshop of your choice. Please see the symposium website (http://www.iafss.org/html/karlsruhe/program.htm) for more information on the Sunday workshops.The workshops will be held in meeting rooms within the conference hotel. Due to space constraints, attendance will be limited to the first 50 participants signing up for each workshop. A fee of 35 Euros will be charged to offset the cost of holding the workshops. Please make your plans now to participate in one of the workshops. Report from the Editor of the 9th IAFSS Symposium Volume In January 2008 the Editor of the 9th IAFSS Symposium volume had a meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, with the IAFSS Chairman, the Program Committee and the Editor of the 8th IAFSS Symposium where our efforts were coordinated. The meeting was also attended by a representative from Cadmus City Press, who will be printing the volume. A contract with Cadsmus was subsequently signed to print the ninth volume of Fire Safety Science. In April 2008 editorial comments, and comments from reviewers, were sent to all 116 corresponding authors of the accepted papers to be presented at the 9th Symposium. Authors handed in revised papers by June 1st, one paper was withdrawn, leaving a 115 papers to be presented. The Editor scrutinized the revised papers, in most cases making small editorial changes, but 25 papers still had some editorial faults and had to be circulated to authors one further round before being accepted. Currently, all but 7 papers have been returned to the Editor. The accepted papers will be saved in a certain pdf format, as specified by the printer of the volume, and these pdf files will be sent to the corresponding authors in late June for one final review. By mid July we hope that all papers will be in order so that the entire bulk of papers can be sent to the printer for further processing. These pdf’s will also be put online as preprints for access by members and registrants in July. The printer will prepare a list of contents, list of authors and keyword index. Also, we must commemorate our fallen colleagues, as has been the tradition in earlier IAFSS Symposium volumes. The editor would be pleased to receive any information for the In Memorium for the volume. Our aim is to have the volume printed and ready to be shipped to the Symposium attendees before the end of the year. The Editor of the 9th IAFSS Symposium volume is Björn Karlsson, Director General of the Iceland Fire Authority (IFA), IAFSS-Editor@brunamal.is . Kristjan Vilhelm Ruriksson, Civil Engineer at the IFA, acts as Assistant Editor. WELCOME TO KARLSRUHE, GERMANY From 21st September to 26th September 2008 Karlsruhe will be at the peak of Fire Safety Science, with the 9th International Symposium of IAFSS held in the Audimax of Karlsruhe University. Upon your arrival – and most of you will land at Frankfurt International Airport and reach Karlsruhe by one of the fastest train services in the world, within approximately one hour – you will be impressed by the scenery that opens to your eyes. Just opposite to the Central station is the Karlsruhe Zoo, inviting you to relax amongst green areas and many animals on display. You may proceed to the first place where the Symposium will start: Sunday workshops at the Novotel, a comfortable place to stay at the south rim of the inner city of Karlsruhe. (Seen on a sunny July morning in 2008) and during a break or early in the evening you may scroll along the marketplace and proceed to the Karlsruhe Palace which is already well known from the first Call-for-Papers document for this Symposium Following welcome reception you may want to return to your hotel. All hotels are located within walking distance to the main city center attractions. Or you may take a glass of German beer in one of the restaurants around in order to have a quiet and sound night. The next morning walk to the Audimax of the University, or you may take the public tramway system for a few stations, which is included in your delegate’s fee by generous sponsorship of the Karlsruhe Local Transport System, and can be used for your whole stay during the Symposium, companions included. But now, back to work …. The Audimax building, with a spacious foyer (for the poster sessions and coffee breaks, welcome and friendly discussions) will be your premium location over the next days during Symposium hours. Starting around 8:30 from Monday to Friday, the papers and posters presented will let you forget about the long travel you may have left behind you to reach this destination. Of course, that is not what is going to happen on Monday night (see left), but the fire school night at the Fire School of the State of Baden-Württemberg, which you will reach by bus from the audimax, gives you the impression of both training and the way of living in our area. With regional specialties and (still secret) surprises in acting and buffet. Around 2200 hrs this first day will come to an end, when the buses take you back to your hotels or to the city center for those, who like to have a final beer for the night… The next day (Tuesday) will see you again in the audimax. Opposite to this place is the cafeteria of the University, where your lunch is served (each day, included) You can hardly see the cafeteria. Because the high rise library building to its right hand side is such an important part of the photo. However, the cafeteria which is a flat but stretched two storey building will comfortably serve your needs – it is just behind the metal sculpture in the middle of the photograph … In the evening of Tuesday delegates and companions interested in a performance on the State Theater’s stage may accompany us to enjoy the musical “Little Shop of Horrors”, which will give you the opportunity for a good deal of laughter in the evening. Before that, we will have a Mediterranean buffet in the upper foyer of the State Theater, exclusively prepared for you. (This event is optional, at an extra fee) Wednesday we will be back at the audimax, back at work, and the evening is free at your convenience. You may go out shopping or look for regional restaurants to spend the night there with your colleagues and friends. Of course, we will give some more information at the site, upon request. Just ask. For Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, the poster sessions are scheduled. These will take place in the Audimax’s foyer Thursday is the next to last day of the Symposium week. When back from theAudimax, and the papers and poster sessions we will enjoy the spectacular Symposium Banquet in the evening, at the Center for Arts and Media Building: The foyer inside will be the location for Thursday night. Dinner Banquet and performances in a former industrial and now museum building will be impressive and away from what you can find everywhere. Friday after the Symposium we will join for a farewell in the cafeteria. As indicated in the website for the symposium, see www.iafss.org, Karlsruhe 08 symposium, you will find there more details on Karlsruhe, its surroundings and the companions program. Again, welcome. Yours sincerely, Dieter Brein, Local Committee Chair IAFSS Seeks Bids for the 11th International Symposium to be Held in Asia-Oceana in 2014 The IAFSS is seeking bids from the Asia-Oceana region for hosting the 11th IAFSS Symposium to be held in 2014. Prior symposia in the Asia-Oceana region have been held in Tokyo (2nd), Melbourne (5th) and Beijing (8th). Selection of the site for the 2014 symposium will be made at the IAFSS Committee meeting to be held in Karlsruhe in September 2008, where bidders will make presentations to the committee. Those interested in hosting the symposium should contact Dr. Beyler or the secretariat for instructions on the preparation of bids. Just before the publication of this Newsletter, New Zealand informally made its intention to bid known. IAFSS Joins CrossRef and Assigns DOI’s to all papers in Fire Safety Science IAFSS has joined CrossRef, the organization that maintains the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system for the scholarly publications community. As you may know, the formal ISSN name for the peer reviewed volumes from our symposia is Fire Safety Science. The forthcoming volume will be volume nine. All the papers in volumes 1-8 have been assigned DOI’s and are fully integrated into the DOI/CrossRef system. For instance the first Emmons Lecture paper by Ed Zukoski is formally cited as Zukoski, E.E., 1986. Fluid Dynamic Aspects Of Room Fires. Fire Safety Science 1: 1-30. doi:10.3801/IAFSS.FSS.1-1 Unless we ruined the link in formatting the newsletter, the DOI identifier above is a live link to the IAFSS Bibliographic Database via the DOI system. The actual link is http://dx.doi.org/10.3801/IAFSS.FSS.1-1 which sends you seamlessly to the IAFSS Bibliographic Database. If the database is moved, new indexes are created in the doi system and the user doesn’t know or care that the actual content has moved to a new location or address. Of course the real value in this system will be realized this summer when the actual electronic document is attached to the IAFSS Bibliographic Database site. Members of IAFSS will then be able to directly access the paper online, no matter how they reach the IAFSS Bibliographic Database site. Joining CrossRef and assigning DOI’s to IAFSS papers puts Fire Safety Science into the mainstream of the electronic publishing world. There are thousands of publishers in the DOI system and all the fire journals we use and cite routinely are included in the system. The future of the DOI system is in forward linking and citation indexing. IAFSS is committed to adding the references to publications within IAFSS papers to the CrossRef system. Once this is accomplished, the system will support identification that your Fire Safety Science paper was cited in a particular Fire Safety Journal paper and similarly that your Fire Safety Journal paper was cited in Fire Safety Science paper. This supports researchers in identifying and accessing references, and supports citation indexing that provides metrics on citation rates for your papers. This isn’t implemented at this time for Fire Safety Science, but it is the goal. Volume 9 of Fire Safety Science will be published electronically and in hard copy after the symposium. Electronic preprints will be available this summer to members and registrants. The electronic papers from Volume 9 will include live links to any referenced paper that has a DOI. When you are reading the paper on your computer screen or other internet active device, you will be able to click on the reference’s DOI link and go directly to the publisher’s website and read the abstract of the paper. Access to the full paper will be subject to your institution’s subscription arrangement with the publisher, or otherwise will most often involve an online purchase. If you are interested in assisting IAFSS in realizing the potential value in these electronic publishing initiatives, contact Craig Beyler or Terry Fay (webmaster of the IAFSS Bibliographic Database site).
NEWS FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS
University of Ulster: Hydrogen Safety Developments The University of Ulster announces two forthcoming events:- The 3rd European Summer School on Hydrogen Safety will be held at the University of Ulster (Belfast, UK) from 21 - 30 July, 2008. This Summer School is funded by the European Commission under the HyCourse project. The state-of-the art in Hydrogen Safety is covered from fundamentals to applications. The programme will be delivered by 16 world leading experts. For more information see www.engj.ulst.ac.uk/esshs/hycourse/index.php The 1st in a series of international short courses “Progress in Hydrogen Safety” will be offered September 29 to October 3 in Belfast, UK. It is entitled Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies: Safety Issues. For more information see http://www.engj.ulst.ac.uk/esshs/docs/ProgressInHydrogenSafetySeptember2008.pdf FSE Studies at Ghent University, Belgium During the last week of September 2009, the second edition of Postgraduate Studies in Fire Safety Engineering starts at Ghent University in Ghent, Belgium. This is a 60 ECTS-credits study program. It is spread over 2 academic years (4 times 12 weeks of classes, on Thursday afternoons and Fridays only), so that professional engineers can participate. Details are found at http://www.opleidingen.ugent.be/studiegids/2007/NL/FACULTY/TW/PGOP/EYFIRE/000101/INDEX.HTM. Registration is possible every year. Details are found on http://www.firw.ugent.be/toekomst/default.jsp?id=toekomst_pg1 The registration fee is 8000Euro for the complete program. For more information, please contact Prof. Bart Merci (Bart.Merci@UGent.be). Lund University The Department of Fire Safety Engineering and Systems Safety has updated its wepage: http://www.brand.lth.se/english. A new educational program has also been introduced. The University of Copenhagen and Lund University have jointly developed a Master of Disaster Management programme that leads to a recognised Master’s degree from the University of Copenhagen, with mandatory and elective courses from Lund University (see http://www.lu.se/master-of-disaster-management-english). Lund University is also applying to the European Commission for a joint Masters Programme in Fire Safety Engineering together with Ghent University and University of Edinburgh Earthquake Damages Sichuan Fire Research Institute (SFRI) Located in Dujiangyan City, Sichuan Province in China, SFRI is a professional institute specialized in studies on construction fire protection science and technology, directly under the Ministry of Public Security. Among other responsibilities, the institution is in charge of the drafting, dissemination and promulgation, and implementation of the mandatory national standard GB20286: Requirements and mark on burning behavior of fire retarding products and subassemblies in public place, and responsible for the inspections on the burning behavior of fireproofing construction materials and products and the inspecting institute for the issuance of fire-retarding marks. SCFRI was badly affected during the “5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake” with some of its buildings collapsed or damaged and testing equipment spoiled to various extents. To support the earthquake disaster relief and after-quake reconstruction, China Plastics Processing Industry Association (CPPIA) and Albemarle are making joint efforts to help SFRI to restore its routine work as soon as possible. Albemarle Nanjing Technology Center, a CPPIA-authorized Flame Retardant Products Testing Center, will be made available to SFRI, with relevant test and research facilities provided, so as to ensure that relevant studies and issuing of flame-retarding marks will not be affected. "Structures in Fire" Community This newsletter is first to inform those of you who could not come to Singapore about the outcome of the fifth international conference SiF'08 which was held 28 to 30 of May 2008. SiF’08 proved to be a great success. A total of 106 abstracts were submitted, out of which the scientific committee selected 68 for publication in the conference proceedings. To limit the event to three days and to allow sufficient time for discussion with a single track, only 52 of them could be given a slot for presentation, with the others presented in a very successful poster session. The attendance was high with not less than 169 delegates in total. All arrangements provided by the local organising committee were great and our go to all members of this committee, especially Kang Hai TAN and Teng Hooi TAN. As was the case for the 4th workshop in Aveiro, there is the possibility to have some of the papers published in a scientific journal. The editors of Journal of Fire Technology have offered to dedicate two issues of the journal to the conference. The steering committee will organise the selection and the peer review of 20 or more papers out of the 68 contained in the proceedings (papers presented as posters being considered). The 2010 conference will be held in America and the 2012 in Europe. Proposals for hosting SiF'2010 must be send to Jean-Marc Franssen (JM.Fanssen@ulg.ac.be) not later than August 31, 2008. One proposal has already been received from Michigan State University. Proposals for hosting SiF'2012 should be sent not later than one month before the start of SiF'2010. (Proposals have already been received from ETH Zürich and the Technical University of Prague). Material prepared by Jean-Marc Franssen and edited by J. Mehaffey Editor’s Note: The Newsletter Editor would like to apologise for inadvertently omitting the announcement of SiF’08 in the last Newsletter despite having received the announcement well before publication of the newsletter. 2008 Bigglestone Award Winner The Harry C. Bigglestone Award is presented annually to the author(s) of the most outstanding paper submitted to Fire Technology during the previous calendar year. Awardees are selected by the international editorial board of Fire Technology. The Bigglestone Award for best paper from Fire Technology in 2007 was “Pressure-Loss Correlations for Designing Foam Proportioning Systems” co-authored by Bogdan Dlugogorski and Eric Kennedy of the Center for Energy at the University of Newcastle Australia and Ted Schaefer of Solberg Asia Pacific, Australia. The Fire Protection Research Foundation The Foundation has recently issued four reports which reflect the completion of major research projects undertaken over the past year: • Explosion Venting Data and ModelingLiterature Review • Research Needs in Support of Hydrogen Safety Standards • Safety and Security in Roadway Tunnels • Smoke Detector Spacing Requirements for Complex Beamed and Sloped Ceilings Visit www.nfpa.org/foundation for full copies of the reports. JOBS Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) The Department of Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) at WPI invites applications for the exciting and newly created position of Professor of Practice and Director of Corporate and Professional Education. The primary functions of this position are teaching, outreach, and service to the FPE community. The creation of this non-tenure-track position allows WPI to expand FPE offerings beyond the standard M.S. and Ph.D. degrees to include both credit-based and non-credit based courses, certificates, workshops, and forums that are tailored to meet the individual needs of the diverse corporate and professional entities involved in the mission of fire safety. This extension of our educational mission supports WPI’s position as a leader in the field. The successful candidate will become part of the FPE faculty and thus part of the FPE leadership team for educational matters. He/She will participate fully in FPE faculty activities such as curriculum development, strategic planning, marketing and public relations, and service to the broad FPE community. Required qualifications include a distinguished professional career with solid industry contacts; comprehensive understanding of the practice of fire protection engineering and developments within the field on a national and international basis; demonstrated success as a teacher/lecturer at the university level and/or significant experience as an instructor for professional development short courses; a masters, doctorate, or other advanced study in Fire Protection Engineering or other relevant discipline; excellent communication skills. The successful candidate will be responsible for teaching FPE courses on-campus and via the Advanced Distance Learning Network; for teaching for-credit offerings to company and mission specific cohorts; for developing and maintaining relationships with the numerous stakeholders across the building and fire safety community; for representing WPI to the various stakeholder communities; and for development of curriculum that is able to efficiently and effectively meet each stakeholders needs. Applicants must send curriculum vitae, statement of interest, and a list of five professional references to: Kathy A. Notarianni, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Fire Protection Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute / 100 Institute Road Worcester, MA 01609 (USA). The position will remain open until filled. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission There is an opening for a fire protection engineer at the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The position will be open from Thursday, June 5, 2008 to Tuesday, September 2, 2008. Applications will be pulled and referred to the rating entity after a minimum of 16 calendar days after the opening date; therefore, you should apply as soon as possible. Applications will be accepted from United States Citizens. Apply online at: http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/ftva.asp?seeker=1&JobID=68974866 BRE Global Ltd – Computational Fluid Dynamics Consultant BRE Global LTD has a vacancy for a consultant proficient in computational fluid dynamics to work in the Fire Safety Group. The successful candidate will work within the existing computer modelling team, using BRE's own software, to support existing and future Government and BRE Trust research projects and private sector consultancy work on Fire Safety Engineering for clients in the UK and around the world. Opportunities to undertake development work on our in-house existing software on smoke and gas movement (JASMINE) and evacuation (CRISP) would also be available to the right candidate. Experience in CFD modelling, with some knowledge of fire is To apply, please e-mail your CV and covering letter explaining why you feel you are suitable to Marie Coudounas coudounasm@bre.co.uk or send by post to Marie Coudounas, BRE Global Ltd, Bucknalls Lane, Garston, Watford, Herts, WD25 9XX. For more information see www.redbooklive.com BRE Global Ltd - Passive Fire Performance Evaluation BRE Global Ltd has a vacancy for a member of technical staff in the passive fire performance team. This presents an exciting career opportunity for a self motivated individual with a construction, engineering or scientific background. Experience in either the passive fire performance of products or certification is not essential as full training will be provided. To apply please send your CV and covering letter explaining why you feel you are suitable to Marie Coudounas at coudounasm@bre.co.uk or by mail to BRE Global Ltd, Bucknalls Lane, Garston, Watford, Herts, WD25 9XX UK. For more information see www.redbooklive.com BRE Global Ltd – Sprinkler Engineer BRE Global Ltd has a vacancy for a sprinkler engineer. Due to the continued success and expansion of the LPS 1048 scheme (Certification of Sprinkler Contractors in the UK and the Republic of Ireland) a sprinkler engineer with good management and presentation skills is required. The position will be mainly office based, so the applicant will need to live within reasonable commuting distance from headquarters near Watford. The main duties will be to manage the day-to-day operation of the LPS 1048 scheme; carry out assessment work for companies wishing to enter the scheme; deal with general technical enquiries relating to the certification of sprinkler systems. To apply please send your CV and covering letter explaining why you feel you are suitable to Marie Coudounas at coudounasm@bre.co.uk or by mail to BRE Global Ltd, Bucknalls Lane, Garston, Watford, Herts, WD25 9XX UK. For more information see www.redbooklive.com
CONFERENCE NOTICEBOARD
CIB W14 on Fire CIB W14 will meet September 3-5, 2008 at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. CIB W14’s overall objectives are to provide an ongoing focus for development of a sound technical basis for fire safety engineering methods as tools in performance-based design. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss research activities in the area of fire pursued by the members and to formulate a research plan for the Commission. Information is available from: George_Hadjisophocleous@carleton.ca SFPE Annual Meeting: October 2008 The 2008 SFPE Professional Development Conference and Exposition: The Annual Meeting will be held October 12-17, 2008 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The SFPE Professional Development Conference and Exposition provides an opportunity to learn new developments in fire protection engineering. This year SFPE will feature the 2nd annual two-day engineering technology conference featuring advanced and cutting-edge presentations on practices in fire protection engineering that are used to protect people and property from fire. Keynotes Presenters that will lead the conference are: Dr. Kazunori Harada, Japan, Dr. Barbara Lane, United Kingdom, David A. Lucht, P.E., USA, Dr. James A. Milke, USA, Wayne D. Moore, P.E., USA, and Jon Nelson, USA. Following the conference is the Engineering Technology Exposition and a series of seminars taught by the profession's leaders. Following the conference is the Engineering Technology Exposition and a series of seminars taught by the profession's leaders. For more details visit the SFPE website at www.sfpe.org Smoke Control in Buildings and Tunnels The International Congress on Smoke Control in Buildings and Tunnels will take place in Santander, Spain on October 15-17, 2008. The organization will be handled by GIDAI, Research Group of the University of Cantabria. The International Congress is aimed at Professional and Technical personnel, both national and international linked to Smoke Control in Buildings and Tunnels, and also for senior students of the different Engineering careers. The goal is to bring together experimental and numerical practitioners, and foster discussion and exchange of knowledge. To receive more detailed information, contact the Organizing Committee of the International Congress, preferably via e-mail at espinap@unican.es. Fire Protection Research Foundation Symposium The Foundation’s 25th anniversary symposium Fire Protection & Safety: Preparing for the Next 25 Years will be convened November 17-18, 2008 in Washington DC. Widely recognized experts will challenge the fire safety community to prepare for changes that will impact all aspects of fire safety: from fire fighting, to fire protection design of buildings, to fire protection systems and materials. More information is available through www.nfpa.org. FIRE and MATERIALS 2009 A Call for Papers has been issued for Fire and Materials 2009 which will be held January 26-28, 2009 in San Francisco, USA. To present a paper at the conference send a 250 word abstract for review to intercomm@dial.pipex.com by July 31, 2008. Fire and Materials is a major international forum on fire performance of materials and products. The 2009 conference will run over 3 days and will incorporate parallel sessions on Fire Investigation and papers on Flame Retardants and FR applications are welcomed with the view to establish further parallel sessions. Other areas targeted for presentations are: Fire Safety Engineering; Fires in Building; Cables and other Electro-technical Applications; Furniture and Furnishings; Wildland Fires and the Built Environment Interface; Fire Dynamics and Transportation. More information is available at the website: http://www.intercomm.dial.pipex.com/html/events International Conference on Applications of Structural Fire Engineering A Call for papers has been issues for the International Conference Applications of Structural Fire Engineering which will be convened February 19-20, 2009 at the Czech Technical University in Prague. The conference will focus on the application of simple and advanced design methods for concrete, steel and timber structures. Particularly relevant themes will be fire modelling, simulation of the heat transfer between the fire and the structure, and modelling of structures at elevated temperatures using numerical methods or the structural Eurocodes Both case studies of successful applications of performance based structural fire safety design as well as new research studies on the relationships between experimental findings, calculation methods and FE simulations are welcome. Abstracts of about 200 words should be submitted to the conference secretariat by September 30, 2008. Details concerning the abstract and the conference can be found at www.fsv.cvut.cz/eurofiredesign. Fire Retardant Technologies (FRT09) FRT09 will be held April 21-23, 2009 at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. The programme follows the Royal Society of Chemistry format, with keynote speakers covering all the major areas, allowing the latest developments to be covered by poster presentations. The symposium will provide a comprehensive review of the industry today including: summaries of existing fire retardant technologies; emerging technologies; and legislative and environmental pressures shaping the future. More details can be found at http://www.rscspecialitychemicals.org.uk/conferences/fire-retardant-technologies.cfm Human Behaviour in Fires: 4th Symposium will be in Cambridge, UK. July 2009 The International Symposia on Human Behaviour in Fire is unique in that it is the recognised platform to discuss and debate current human behaviour in fire issues, review strategies and scan the horizon for emerging trends and long term developments. The theme for the 4th Symposium is Fire Safety – Putting People First. In putting people first the Programme Committee wish to encourage new voices in the field, interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary activities and global participation. The Programme Committee invite participants to focus on current serious issues, areas of contention, advances in knowledge and future developments in the field of human behaviour in fire and related fields and particularly welcome papers and posters which present; • new data, fresh ideas and insights into human behaviour and performance • novel approaches and enhanced capabilities in egress modelling, and • challenging issues, new technologies and innovative approaches to engineering human behaviour in practice To submit a paper, send an abstract (two-pages for paper presentation, one-page for poster) for review before November 3rd, 2008 to the organisers : Carole Franks, Interscience Communications, West Yard House, Guildford Grove, Greenwich, London SE10 8JT, UK. email: intercomm@dial.pipex.com Fax: +44 (0)20 8692 5155 12th European Meeting on Fire Retardant Polymers A Call for Papers has been issued for the 12th European Meeting on Fire Retardant Polymers FRPM09. The conference is held every two years and, after very successful FRPM Conferences held in Berlin (FRPM 05) and Bolton (FRPM 07), the next event will take place from 31 August to 3 September 2009 in Poland, Poznan at the Institute of Natural Fibres. Authors are requested to submit the proposed title of their paper and a one page (A4 format) of an abstract (that may include a few key figures) by 30 October 2008 to the Conference Secretariat at vera@inf.poznan.pl. Details concerning the abstract format, as well as updated information on the conference and a registration form can found at the website http://www.frpm09.com. THE IAFSS COMMITTEE Chairman: Dr Craig Beyler Vice-Chairmen: Prof Mario Fontana, Switzerland Prof Yuji Hasemi, Japan Dr James Mehaffey, Canada Secretary: Prof Bogdan Dlugogorski, Australia Treasurer: Dr Robert Bill, USA Immediate Past Chairman: Prof Dougal Drysdale Executive Prof Geoff Cox, UK Members: Prof Fan Weicheng, China Members: Dr Vytenis Babrauskas , USA Mr Dieter Brein, Germany Prof W-K Chow , Hong Kong, China Dr David Evans, USA Dr Charles Fleischmann, New Zealand Dr Anthony Hamins, USA Dr Yaping He, Australia Prof Pierre Joulain, France Dr Björn Karlsson, Iceland Dr Suresh Kumar, UK Prof Patrick Pagni, USA Dr Guylène Proulx, Canada Dr Ai Sekizawa, Japan Dr Osami Sugawa, Japan Prof Jose Torero, UK back to top