Speaker: Dr. Ruben Van Coile, Ghent University, Belgium
Description:
AFireTest is a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC). It aims to develop tools and methods for a science-based approach to fire testing. An ERC grant is considered very prestigious as the ERC funds breakthrough, high-risk/high-gain research in any field.
In this webinar, the AFireTest vision for the future of fire testing will be presented. At its core, AFireTest proposes to design fire tests so that the information gained from performing the test is maximized. This means that tests should be designed considering the state-of-knowledge, the design problem at hand, and the available resources. On a technical level, optimized fire testing is achieved by integrating concepts of uncertainty quantification, numerical modelling, experimental design, and surrogate modelling (machine learning).
The feasibility of optimized fire testing will be demonstrated through an example from the field of post-fire assessment of concrete structures.