Invited Plenary Speakers
Invited Plenary Speakers
Ghent University, Belgium
Title: Which test is the best? Choosing the fire test that maximizes the information gain
Abstract: Current fire safety practice relies on standardized testing protocols. While effective in certain contexts, such standardized approaches do not provide a comprehensive understanding of construction products’ fire performance. Fire testing can be made more efficient by adopting knowledge-driven testing methodologies.
Within the AFireTest project at Ghent University an Adaptive Fire Testing framework is being developed to guide knowledge-based fire testing. Central to this framework are the concepts of information gain and expected utility. These concepts allow to quantify the value of conducting a fire experiment before its execution, and to choose between test alternatives.
The presentation outlines the principles of Adaptive Fire Testing and provides basic applications. The findings highlight the potential of Adaptive Fire Testing to transform fire safety science and engineering by providing a systematic, data-driven approach to fire testing.
Biography: Dr. Ruben Van Coile is Associate Professor at Ghent University, Belgium, where he founded the structural fire engineering team (SFE@UGent). His research focusses on the application of risk and reliability methods to structural fire engineering. At Ghent University, Ruben teaches Fire Safety Strategy, Risk Management and Applications of Structural Fire Engineering to the MSc in Fire Safety Engineering students.
Ruben received the 2018 NFPA Bigglestone Award for “excellence in the communication of fire protection concepts” and currently leads the ERC project AFireTest which aims to develop knowledge-based fire testing approaches. Ruben Van Coile is also convener of the task group fire design of concrete structures and its working group post-fire assessment within The International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib), and is active in Belgian and international standardization efforts.
King’s College London, UK
Title: Lithium-ion battery fire safety: from experiments to modelling approaches
Abstract: Lithium-ion batteries are crucial in the transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions. Their versatility, high energy density, and rechargeable nature make them indispensable in various industries, including consumer electronics, electric transportation, renewable energy storage, and more. However, like all new technologies, there are always potential significant challenges, with one of the most prominent being the safety hazards linked to the risk of thermal runaway and fires.
The ignition of lithium-ion cells is due to thermal runaway, where heat produced in the cell is dissipated more slowly than it is generated by exothermic reactions. The various processes leading up to thermal runaway can vary depending on the battery chemistry, state of charge, electrolyte composition etc. There has been extensive focus in the past decade on experimental work to try and quantify ignition of lithium-ion batteries and the resulting heat release rates, flame characteristics, or vapour clouds. These experimental results have also been adopted to validate various modelling efforts, with the primary aim of quantifying the physical and chemical conditions that lead to each fire or explosion scenario. These efforts will be explored in this talk with emphasis given to quantifying the processes and uncertainties around ignition, fire spread, and the challenges and tools that are needed to quantify the safety risks deriving from lithium-ion battery failures.
Biography: Dr Francesco Restuccia is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering, King’s College London, which he joined in 2019 after completing a PhD and Postdoc at Imperial College London. His research thus far has broadly focussed on transient heat transfer processes in electrochemical storage, wildfire dynamics, and safety hazards in low-carbon energy industries with a focus on ignition and fire spread. In battery fires, he has focused on understanding the conditions and parameters for which lithium-ion batteries of different chemistries ignite or off-gas, and for which flaming combustion occurs. He has developed methods to link experimental measurements to accurate models particularly focusing on quantifying heat release and estimating volume reductions in battery components during thermal runaway.
Dr Restuccia is very active in outreach, on standards committees, and as well as teaching on the General Engineering course at King’s College London he has given guest lectures and CPD internationally on Fire Safety topics primarily focusing on ignition hazards.
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
Title: Integrating WUI fire risk analysis into the fire safety engineering practice: challenges and opportunities
Abstract: As WUI fires are posing great management challenges in terms of civil protection and fire loss mitigation, the creation of fire-adapted communities that can safely co-exist with wildfires has become a growing necessity. A need for guidelines and standards that focus on WUI fire risk reduction has been highlighted by the global recent fire events. The WUI fire problem is trans-scalar, as multiple phenomena interact at the landscape, community and property scales. Additionally, it is transversal across several fields of engineering and science, as risk analysis methodologies at the WUI involve approaches from the fields of forestry, urban and landscape planning, among others.
The presentation will cover how fire safety engineering can be integrated within WUI fire risk analysis at the different scales, what methodologies are already available and what are the knowledge gaps that should be addressed. An example of risk methodologies at the different scales will be presented through the case study of the metropolitan WUI area of the city of Barcelona (Spain).
Biography: Dr Pascale Vacca is a postdoctoral researcher and assistant lecturer at the Chemical Engineering Department of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where she is a member of the Centre for Technological Risk Studies (CERTEC). After completing the International Masters in Fire Safety Engineering, she worked as a fire safety consultant at Jensen Hughes Belgium, before starting her PhD on Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires at UPC. Her research interests are focused on the assessment of risk and vulnerability of assets located at the WUI and the Wildland-Industrial Interface. She investigates wildfire impact and its consequences by means of a performance-based design approach and the use of CFD tools. At UPC, she is involved in the teaching of fire science and risk and safety related courses both at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels.