RISUD Research Seminar – The Past, Current and Future of Structural Fire Testing

The threat of fires to people and built environment remains a major challenge, which has been particularly complicated by evolving designs towards low carbon emissions and automated construction. However, the current fire testing approaches are obsolete. Furnace tests, which use prescribed temperature development curves, lack the fidelity to accurately reproduce real fire behavior in modern buildings, while burning fires in real buildings are extremely expensive and difficult. This talk will introduce the major achievements in fire resistance tests that have been made since 1918, present the recent progress in natural fire tests and explore the future of on-site structural fire testing.