Fire and Energy Performance of Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

The energy efficiency and fire safety of buildings are becoming increasingly challenging in the construction industry around the world due to the adoption of new construction materials and the continuous evolution of governments’ regulations and targets. Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) techniques and new emerging building practices can be susceptible to catastrophic failure due to fire accidents and can be less energy efficient due to the high thermal conductance of the materials utilized.

Further, due to the varying thermal conductivity of new construction materials adopted in MMC (such as new optimized steel and/or concrete and timber hybrid elements and configurations), the structural components of the buildings must be studied, well-engineered, and covered against unintended thermal bridges. Additionally, on the other hand, the strength decay/detrimental behaviour of new materials used in structural components at high temperatures should be studied to mitigate the risk of fatal accidents in the event of fire accidents.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to share advanced knowledge, technologies, and methods to identify and study the fire and energy performance of buildings. Additionally, this Special Issue seeks to identify other areas in which additional research can be conducted to achieve the desired thermal efficiency of buildings while ensuring fire safety. Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Fire resistance and performance of building elements;
• Structural fire resistance testing and modelling;
• Structural damage and collapse from exposure to fire;
• Building energy performance and modelling;
• Principles of structural fire-resistance design;
• Thermal and fire insulation materials;
• Building performance at elevated temperatures;
• Heat transfer modelling and strength decay analysis.

Dr. Keerthan Poologanathan
Dr. Marco Corradi
Dr. Muhammad Rahman
Dr. Gatheeshgar Perampalam
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.