by Naian Liu, State Key Laboratory of Fire Science
Researchers gathered in Hefei, China in April 2016 for the 8th International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazards (8th ISFEH). The Seminar, held every three years, is one of the highest-level international conferences in the fire and explosion research field. This was the first time that the seminar was held in Mainland China since the seminar’s launch in 1995.
Opening ceremony and talks featured Prof. Chusheng Chen, Vice President of the University of Science and Technology of China; Prof. Peter B. Sunderland from the University of Maryland, Chair of the International Organizing Committee of ISFEH; and Dr. Jenny Chao from FM Global, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of 8th ISFEH. Franco Tamanini of FM Global chaired the Opening Ceremony and Prof. Naian Liu from USTC chaired this seminar.
The 8th ISFEH aimed to present and discuss the latest research results and related technology development trends in fire and explosion science and technology. Plenary talks were presented by:
- Dr. Randall McDermott from the National Institute of Standards and Technology — “Taming the Dragon: Ten Milestones in Fire Dynamics Simulator Development”
- Dr. Nabiha Chaumeix from the Centre national de la recherche scientifique — “Fundamental Studies Towards Better Assessment of Hydrogen Explosions”
- Prof. Longhua Hu from the State Key Laboratory of Fire Science — “Research on Pool Fire Behaviours in Wind – State of the Art and Future Challenges”
- Dr. Yajue Wu from Sheffield University — “The Challenges of Effective Risk Assessment and Safety Management of Fire and Explosion Hazards”
Six scholars were invited to give highlighted presentations, which supported a platform for sharing new ideas and recent research findings in fire and explosion science and technology.
Organized by the International Organizing Committee of ISFEH and hosted by the State Key Laboratory of Fire Science (SKLFS) at USTC, this seminar gathered over 120 scholars and postgraduates; the authors of the nearly 90 papers accepted for publication in the seminar proceedings covered over 20 countries and regions.
Topics of the seminar included:
- compartment, tunnel, and mine fires;
- fire dynamics;
- flame spread and growth;
- ignition and extinction;
- pyrolysis and fire chemistry;
- suppression and mitigation;
- wildland fires;
- blast analysis and mitigation;
- deflagration and flame acceleration;
- deflagration venting;
- detonation and DDT;
- dust explosions;
- and hydrogen safety.
During the seminar, two Best Paper Awards and five Best Student Presenter Awards were selected.
1. Best Paper Awards:
- CFD Modeling of Industrial-Scale Roll Paper Fires, Ning Ren, Dong Zeng, Karl Meredith, Marcos Chaos, Yi Wang and Sergey Dorofeev
- Cellular Flame Instabilities, Derek Bradley, Malcolm Lawes and Richard Mumby
2. Best Student Paper Awards:
- Quantitative Study of Fingering Pattern Created by Smoldering Combustion, Yuki Tada, Kenta Suzuki, Kazunori Kuwana, Genichiro Kushida and Hiroyuki Iizuka
- CFD Fire Modeling with General-purpose Commercial Software, Alexander Snegirev, Ekaterina Kokovina, Anna Tsoy, John Harris and Ted Wu
- Flame Propagation Behaviours in Micron- and Nano-Titanium Dust Explosions, Wei Gao, Xinyan Zhang, Jianliang Yu, Libin Wang, Lian Peng, Ke Ji and Ritsu Dobashi
- Sensitivity Analysis on the Parameters of a Fire Spread Model, Xieshang Yuan, Naian Liu and Xiaodong Xie
- CO2 explosions – An Experimental Study of Rapid Phase Transition, Per Morten Hansen, Knut Vaagsaether, André Vagner Gaathaug and Dag Bjerketvedt
A memorial for Prof. Toshisuke Hirano (1939-2014) was held during the seminar. Prof. Hirano was a founding member of ISFEH. He was one of the founders of the Asia-Oceania Association for Fire Safety Science and Technology (AOAFST), and held the positions of Chairman or President of the Combustion Society of Japan (1989-1994), Asia-Oceania Association for Fire Science and Technology (1992-1995; 1995-Honorary President), and International Association for Fire Safety Science (1997-2002). He was given major awards by various organizations, including the Award for Prominent Contribution (Japan Association for Fire Science and Technology, 1985), Dionizy Smolenski Medal (Poland Academy of Science, 1997), Award for Prominent Contribution in Science (Japan Institute of Energy, 1999), and The Bernard Lewis Medal (The Combustion Institute, 2004). He was also the winner of the International Science and Technological Cooperation Award of the People’s Republic of China (2002) because of his collaborations with SKLFS.
The ISFEH is a key conferences in the field of fire and explosion research. This 8th ISFEH was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, FM Global and The International Association of Wildland Fire.
