CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
JARO, ILOILO CITY 5000 PHILIPPINES
Tel.No. 3291971 TO 79 local 1084

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

REACTION PAPER on SEMINARS/TRAININGS ATTENDED

Name: Sendico, Kendra joy B.

Lecture Series on Fire Engineering
Title of Seminar/Traning:

Date and Time: August 13-15, 2019, 2:00-4:00 Venue: En200

Name of Speaker: Dr. William Shu Yan

Lecture Fire Engineering is the application of scientific and engineering principles, rules
Notes: (codes), and expert judgement, based on an understanding of the phenomena and effects of
fire and of the reaction and behaviour of people to fire, to protect people, property and the
environment from the destructive effects of fire.
Thus, at the end of the day the main aim of structural fire engineering is to primarily
ensure the safety of building occupants, with the protection of property and good as a
secondary objective. However, with the increasing influence of insurance companies in
building development the protection of assets is becoming more and more important.
However, to consider all aspects of fire design is a complex and multi-disciplinary task,
typically left for specialists. It requires the consideration of “active and passive measures,
movement of smoke and fire, detection systems, fire safety management, structural response
and risk analysis”
REFLECTIONS: (Please answer the following questions, whnever applicable and as concise as possible.)
1. What particular field/s of specialization in Civil Engineering was the seminar or training about?

x Structural Engineering Transporation Engineering

Construction Management Geotechnical Engineering

Water Resources Engineering

2. Identify and describe some current trends or best practices

Events such as the collapse of the World Trade Centre have increased the interest and rate of research
and interest in structural fire engineering worldwide in recent years. A report from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA, 2002) which followed the World Trade Centre disaster stated that: “The
behaviour of the structural system under fire conditions should be considered as an integral part of
structural design.” Thus, it can be seen that the structural engineering industry is slowly moving from
prescriptive based methods towards rational structural fire engineering solutions, whereby fire
considerations are starting to become core issues rather than problems addressed as an addendum.

3. Discuss the relevance or importance of civil engineering in the society as reflected in this
seminar/training.

A challenge with structural fire engineering is being able to define failure. Since it would be
acceptable for a structure to suffer some damage in a large fire it makes it very difficult to know
what fire limit state to design a building to. In some structures beams and columns have buckled
during real fires but floors remained in position such that people could get out and the structures
didn’t collapse – so would those be failures or not?

4. What is your most significant learning from this activity?

Fire safety engineering is a recognised method of achieving adequate fire safety in a building. It takes
into account the entire fire safety engineering package and is sometimes the only viable method of
achieving a satisfactory standard of fire safety in large or complex buildings.
The term fire engineering is widely misused and not well understood; there are two main types fire
engineering: fire protection engineering and fire safety engineering.