AUS to host a symposium to improve fire safety

American University of Sharjah (AUS) will host the 2012 Mini-Symposium and Workshop on Design for Fire Resistance in Structures at the university's LIB-011 Lecture Hall from Tuesday, December 11 to Wednesday, December 12, 2012.

The objective of this symposium is to teach participants about the behavior and analytical modeling of structural systems under extreme fire conditions and material properties at elevated temperatures.

This two-day symposium will focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of fire engineering in relation to structural stability in fire. The speakers will initiate an introduction to the concepts of fire engineering of structures' safety and will present recent technological advancements. The response of steel and concrete structures during fire will be discussed, along with strategies for enhancing their fire performance.

The symposium will focus on the design, behavior and analytical modeling of structural systems under extreme fire conditions and material properties at elevated temperatures. Guidelines for enhancing the fire resistance of structural systems will be presented. The latest philosophies in performance-based fire safety design and analysis of structures in fire will be presented along with evidence from real building fires.

Changes due to elevated temperatures in the mechanical properties of construction materials such as steel, concrete and advanced engineered materials such as fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) used in strengthening structural materials will be discussed. The effect on the design of structures with such changes in the material properties at elevated temperatures will also be covered.

Several renowned and award-winning international speakers from the around the world with varied academic and industry experience will share their knowledge, including Dr. Venkatesh Kodur, Professor and Director of the Center on Structural Fire Engineering and Diagnostics at Michigan State University; Dr. Susan Lamont, CEng MSFPE, Associate Director at Arup Gulf Ltd; Dr. Rami Hawileh, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at American University of Sharjah; and Mr. Peter Scott, International Paint's Structural Engineering Manager specializing in structural fire design and fire protection of structural steel using intumescent products.

The symposium will be open to practicing design engineers: government and private; civil, structural, mechanical engineers and architects; faculty members of engineering and architecture colleges; scientists and officers from government research and development organizations and ministries; research scholars and post-graduate students of the built environment as well as government (local/state) regulatory and building officials.

The AUS College of Engineering will issue a certificate of completion for delegates who attend the entire symposium.