About CONFAB 2022
The infrastructure of human civilisation is perennially under threat from natural and man-made hazards, of which fire and blast are among the most destructive and frequent. These hazards are often also interdependent, where one may lead to the other, particularly in industrial environments. It is the aim of this conference to provide an international forum to regularly bring together leading researchers in these fields along with leading practitioners in order to meet the following main objectives:
• Disseminate state-of-the-art knowledge and practice for dealing with both of these hazards either individually or collectively
• Provide a forum where students, researchers and practitioners in these fields may interact, network and learn from each other and promote best practice
• Researchers are afforded the opportunity of obtaining useful feedback on their research from their peers as well as from a strong contingent of leading practitioners in the field. Likewise industry participants will get the chance to inform researchers with the issues of greatest concern to them
• Over the long term it is expected that this conference will contribute in leading to a safer and more resilient built environment as well as enhanced safety in industrial environments, both on and off-shore.
Conference Themes
| Characterisation of fire, blast and impact loading on structures |
| Behaviour of structural materials at high temperatures and highstrain rates, including performance of protective materials |
| Mechanics of material and structural damage, including the analysis of failure and collapse mechanisms |
| Modelling and simulation, including coupled modelling methods |
| Design of structures for improved resilience |
| Strengthening, retrofit and repair |
| Risk and uncertainty modelling as well as performance based engineering |
| Safety of high risk facilities such as nuclear power plants |
| Applications of sensing, AI and big data in infrastructure safety |
| Examples of high-end design case studies in various industry sectors, both on and offshore |
| Material Behaviour of Timber Structures under Fire & Blast Loading |
| Design of Bridges for Fire & Blast Resistance (Including Cables & Other Appendages) |
| Effects of Fire & Blast on Steel Connections |
| Effects of Fire & Blast on Facades & Glass Assemblies |
| Competing Constraints in the Design Process |
| Multi-Hazard Assessment & Design |
Organising Committee
| Asif S Usmani Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong |
Yong Lu The University of Edinburgh UK |
| Purnendu Das ASRANet Ltd UK |
Katherine Cashell Brunel University London UK |
Industrial Advisory Board
| Allan Jowsey | PFP Specialists | UK |
| Kees Both | PROMAT | UK |
| Neal Blennerhassett | IKM Consulting | UK |
| Danny Hopkin | OFR Consultants | UK |
| Holly Warren | AkzoNobel | UK |
| Jiayu Hu | Mott MacDonald | UK |
International Advisory Committee
| Daniel Alvear | University of Cantabria | Spain |
| Daniel Ambrosini | National University of CUYO | Argentina |
| Masuhiro Beppu | National defense Academy | Japan |
| Serge Bourbigot | University of Lille | France |
| George Boustras | European University | Cyprus |
| Ian Burgess | University of Sheffield | UK |
| Luke Busy | University of Edinburgh | UK |
| Ricky Carvel | University of Edinburgh | UK |
| Suwen Chen | Tongji University | China |
| Xudong Cheng | University of Science & Technology of China | China |
| Leon Chernin, | University of Dundee | UK |
| Demitrios Cotsovos | Heriot Watt University | UK |
| Wan-Ki Chow | Hong Kong Polytichnic University | Hong Kong |
| Charles Clifton | University of Auckland | New Zealand |
| Jim Davidson | Auburn University | USA |
| Dhionis Dhima | CSTB | France |
| Charles Fleischmann | University of Canterbury | New Zealand |
| Massimo Fragiacomo | University of LAquila | Italy |
| Jean-Mark Franssen | University of Liege | Belgium |
| Feng Fu | City University of London | UK |
| Thomas Gernay | Johns Hopkins University | USA |
| Marlair Guy | INERIS | France |
| John Adam Gales | York University | Canada |
| George Hadjisophocieous | Carleton University | Canada |
| Lin-Hai Han | Tsinghua University | China |
| Hong Hao | Curtin University | Australlia |
| Zhaohui Huang | Brunel University | UK |
| Khalifa Al-Jabri | Sultan Qaboos University | Oman |
| Eric Jacques | Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University | USA |
| Anne Jeffers | University of Michigan | USA |
International Advisory Committee
| Panos Kostovinos | Arup | UK |
| Adam Krauski | The Main School of Fire Service | Poland |
| Qingming Li | University of Manchester | UK |
| Ruggiero Lovreglio | Massey University | New Zealand |
| Chrysanthos Maraveas | University of Patras | Greece |
| Margaret McNamee | Lund University | Sweden |
| Ali Nadjai | University of Ulster | UK |
| Amr Nasser | Assiut University | Egypt |
| Eulalia Planas | UPC | Spain |
| Muhammad Masood Rafi | NED University | Pakistan |
| Paulo Vila Real | University of Aveiro | Portugal |
| Guillermo Rein | Imperial College London | UK |
| Thomas Schulenberg | Kalsruhe Instiute of Technology | Germany |
| Umesh Sharma | Indian Institute of Technology | India |
| Mark Stewart | The University of Newcastle | Australia |
| Ming Tan | Mott MacDonald | UK |
| Ganesh Thiagarajan | University of Missouri | USA |
| Nicola Tondini | University of Trento | Italy |
| Jose Torero | University College London | UK |
| Dimitry Val | Heriot-Watt University | UK |
| Eric Williamson | University of Texas | USA |
| Subhash C Yaragal | NITK | India |
| Bensheng Zhang | Glasgow Caledonian University | UK |
Key Deadlines
| Deadline for abstracts | March 7, 2022 |
| Notification of Acceptance | April 8, 2022 |
| Submission of full papers | Aug. 8, 2022 |
| Registration Closes | Aug. 15, 2022 |
