Dr Andres Osorio and Dr Juan P. Hidalgo
Tue 20 Jun 2017, 13:00 - 14:00
AGB Seminar Room AGB Building, King’s Buildings, EH9 3JL

If you have a question about this talk, please contact: Martina Manes (s1688520)

Abstract:

Dr Osorio and Dr Hidalgo will introduce the recent activities and research interests of the Fire Safety Engineering research group (UQ Fire) and the Centre for Future Timber Structures at the University of Queensland. UQ Fire sits within the School of Civil Engineering and consists of three academic staff, three research staff, more than 15 postgraduate students, and several visiting academics and staff. Our group is a key member of the Centre for Future Timber Structures, which is a Centre of Excellence for the education of future timber industry professionals and the creation of knowledge-based innovations that can drive the future development of timber in the built environment.

At present, the main research activities of UQ Fire are focused on the fire performance of timber and bamboo structures, facades, modular building panels, composite materials, fire protection materials such as intumescent paints, and fire dynamics in open plan compartments. This talk will brief main outcomes from these ongoing research projects and will highlight future projects regarding timber and wildland fire research starting soon at UQ. The main emphasis of our timber research is on the mechanism of self-extinguishment of engineered wood products (EWP),a uncertainties such as delamination and encapsulation failure inhibiting the safe use of EWP in buildings, and enhanced performance of structural timber using composite materials. Wildland fire research is at its starting point at UQ, and currently establishing collaborations with academic institutions in Australia and overseas. Our research aims at studying the fundamentals of wildland fire spread and the effect of vegetation moisture in the fire risk.

Bio:

Dr. Andres Osorio is a Lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. He obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. After his PhD he worked two years in a startup focused on developing and bringing to market a natural gas storage and delivery system targeted to vehicular applications. His primary research interests include small and medium scale flammability behavior of materials, wildland fires, accelerated life testing, and fire in microgravity.

Dr. Juan P. Hidalgo is a Lecturer in Timber and Fire Safety Engineering within the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. He obtained his PhD in Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh in 2015, which was sponsored by Rockwool International A/S. He continued his academic career at the University of Edinburgh as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, being involved in numerous research projects such as the FireComp project, and other projects focused on the fire performance of timber construction and diverse construction systems. His research to date has primarily focused on the performance of building materials for sustainable and durable construction exposed to fire conditions, and fire dynamics in modern infrastructure..

Pizza from 12.45