Fire Science Show is connecting fire researchers and practitioners with a society of fire engineers, firefighters, architects, designers and all others, who are genuinely interested in creating a fire-safe future. Through interviews with a diverse group of experts, we present the history of our field as well as the most novel advancements. We hope the Fire Science Show becomes your weekly source of fire science knowledge and entertainment. Produced in partnership with the Diamond Sponsor of the show - OFR Consultants
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078 - Experiments that Changed Fire Science pt. 2 - BRE Cardington with Tom Lennon
If Dalmarnock was the reality check for fire modelling, we could call the work carried by BRE at Cardington the birthplace of Structural Fire Engineering. Welcome to episode 2 of Experiments that Changed Fire Science!
In this episode dr Tom Lennon from BRE takes us to a journey through the massive experimental programmes carried at BRE Cardington facility. A former aircraft hangar turned into a testing ground for ENTIRE BUILDINGS. That is what was the most unique for the programme - instead of focusing on single elements of the building (which we had been doing for ~150 years at that point) we did observe, touch and measure the behaviour of the entire structure. We did learn a lot from that... From understanding membrane actions, and the alternative load paths in structures, through validation of the natural fire Eurocode model to building a massive database still used to this day to verify and validate modern tools of structural fire engineering. Without Cardington, fire science would not be here. So please join me in this and listen to Tom's recollection of the glorious days of the fire science, at Cardington.
If you want to read more, I would start with the Book on the Behaviour of Multi Storey Steel Framed Buildings in Fire.
and also check these resources:
- BRE website about the tests
- Steelconstruction.info repository of test reports and data
- 2001 Cardington reports
- Steel frames under fire conditions (PiT project final report)
- other UoE Cardington reports (PiT project)
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