Project

Fire safety of mass timber buildings

Project Under Development

We propose 4 activities in 1.4 which are all interlinked with one another and with other nodes and which have activity (4) below as a linking activity which all other projects contribute to. These proposed projects are numbered 1 to 4 as follows:

  1. Phenomena governing the fire dynamics in open plan timber compartments
    • Bench and Intermediate scale testing methodologies
    • Incorporation of fire dynamics of open plan timber compartments in the fire safety strategy of a building
  2. Fire performance of hybrid timber floor systems
    • Interaction with 1.3
    • Identification of the potential exposure from fire to hybrid timber floor systems
    • Fire safety design of hybrid timber floors
  3. External and façade exposure arising from fires in timber buildings
    • Impact of expressed timber on the potential for vertical fire spread and for building-to-building fire
    spread
  4. Demonstration tests of open plan compartment fires in timber buildings
    • Validation for (1), above
    • Data collection for (2) and (3), above.

Project (1) has effectively begun. Project (2) is intended to interface with Node 1.3 and start when the hybrid timber floor systems are clearly defined. Project (4) should aim to commence after approximately 1 or 2 years. Project (3) should commence at the same time as or following project (4).

Please see Project Video for further information:

Objectives/Deliverables

  • Design methodology for open plan timber compartments
  • An understanding of the fundamentals of fire in open plan compartments
  • Quantification of the boundary condition for hybrid timber elements in fire
  • Characterization of the external impacts of fires in open plan compartments
  • Large to full scale demonstration tests in support of the above activities

Project Leader/s

Project Staff

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Opportunity

HDR Candidate

Higher Degrees by Research Scholarship Opportunity

Project Investigators

Cristian Maluk

Node Leader - Performance of Building Components; Project Leader

The University of Queensland / Semper, UK

Felix Wiesner

Partner Investigator

The University of British Columbia

Ryan Hilditch

Partner Investigator

Hydrock Consultants

Simón Santamaria

Partner Investigator

Hydrock Consultants

Adam Ervine

Partner Investigator

Bloom Fire Consulting

Toby Hodsdon

Partner Investigator; Steering Group Committee Chair

Arup

Benoit Gilbert

Project Leader; Chief Investigator

Griffith University / Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

Lead Project Partner Organisation

Project Partners