I have been looking seminar topics for workshops, technical sessions etc. If anyone has suggestions please post. You don’t have to now who can do it, just an idea of what people want is a start. teh hardest part is getting the topics.
SFPE International has a really cool sounding Advanced FDS course in conjunction with NIST with Kevin McGratten and others presenting etc. 4 days of geek heaven, but I don’t think I can get them here, even with the lure of free beer.
Thunderhead (Pyrosim) have recently announced an advanced Pyrosim course (https://www.thunderheadeng.com/training/). Is there an interest in this and maybe a repeat of the intro course - I see the price (in he US) is around $US1000 a head each.
Hi Geoff
If anyone is interested, happy to do a presentation on hypoxic fire prevention. We have just completed the first stage of a 140,000m3 hypoxic protected cold store in Christchurch, with all of the attendant approval processes - Council, FENZ, Worksafe, Aon etc, plus persuading the contractors that leaks do actually matter.
We should investigate the SFPE International advance FDS course just to see if it is a potential starter and to gauge the NZ interest - Aussie too.
A topic of potential interest is the terminology and reading of title plans with a view to gaining a better understanding of fire safety design relating to “Other Property”. Unit titles in multilevel buildings can be very complex. There is a lot of jargon or words with not so obvious meanings and have very specific legal meanings. There is also some complications and unexpected considerations in cross-lease titles for fire engineers.
I do agree that we should get McGrattan and co to present the FDS course here.
In addition I think that SFPE needs to set up a two-day seminar to work through all the issues around cladding & cladding systems, in light of the Grenfell Tower fire and systems testing (NFPA 285; BS 8414 and the new AS 5113)
Are we doing ourselves a disservice by only relying on small-scale testing results?
Certainly a tech session on cladding systems say by a facade engineer or cladding specialist, what they are and how they work would be useful, even as one of the standard tech sessions. as fire engineers we want to block the cavities off, but they have a lot of detail to them to make them work. I suspect it is easy to get them wrong, starting with the fact they are wet areas, so that needs some consideration for materials.
Cladding and cladding systems are somewhat topical at present, and I know BRANZ are looking at this, while trying to avoid duplication with what is happening overseas. Part of the issues in NZ to date is what is a “cladding system”. If you talk to the suppliers, only the outside panel you see is cladding, the rest of it is “builders work”. A facade engineer would rightly point out that the system is also the cavity and underlay (RAB), whcih is in accordance with the NZBC Handbook definition
Cladding system The outside or exterior weather-resistant surface of a building including roof cladding and roof underlays, wall cladding and wall underlays, and cavity components, rooflights, windows, doors and all penetrations, flashings, seals, joints and junctions.
This then raises the issue of people wanting to use wooden battens or ply RAB on buildings over 7m.