Bridging Gaps of Research and Practice of Fire Resistance.

Fire resistance is a complex subject and multi-disciplinary knowledge is required to develop a thorough scientific understanding of the subject. In contrast, the regulations and methods of practice have historically been based on reactions to past incidents and testing. As a result, there are many uncertainties in the application of scientific knowledge to practice. While research advances in the past few decades have substantially grown the knowledge to allow the practice of fire resistance to have a sound footing in fundamentals of science and engineering, there are still many gaps that are obstacles towards complete rational application of science and engineering in the practice of fire resistance. Based on the author’s recent experiences of providing fire resistance advice to the modular construction industry, this paper elaborates on some of the important topics, including selection of appropriate fire scenarios, provision of reliable temperature dependent thermal properties of materials, achieving effective practical outcomes without compromising fire safety, and extension of fire test results. This paper will be of interest to researchers who should always strive to make their research findings impactful in practice as well as fire protection practitioners who can find means of extracting value from research studies to assist their practice.