Fire Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis: Structural Thermo-Mechanical Response and Wildland–Urban Interface Fire Risk

Dear Colleagues,

Fire safety engineering and risk analysis are increasingly important as fire hazards become more complex across built and natural environments. In addition to traditional compartment fires, researchers and practitioners now face challenges related to structural responses under fire, fire-induced damage, wildfire exposure, and wildland–urban interface (WUI) fire risk. These issues span multiple scales, from material behavior and structural performance to community-level vulnerability and resilience.

This Special Issue, ‘Fire Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis: Structural Thermo-Mechanical Response and Wildland–Urban Interface Fire Risk,’ aims to provide a collection of high-quality research, reviews, and perspectives on structural fire engineering and WUI fire risk analysis. The issue welcomes studies that advance scientific understanding, computational modeling, experimental methods, data-driven approaches, and risk-informed decision-making for fire safety and resilience.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Structural Thermo-Mechanical Response

Behavior of materials, components, and structural systems under fire exposure;

Performance-based structural fire engineering and fire resistance assessment;

Failure mechanisms, progressive collapse, and post-fire performance;

Thermo-mechanical properties of construction materials.

Data-Driven Structural Fire Analysis

Machine learning and surrogate modeling for structural fire prediction;

Databases for material properties, fire tests, and structural fire response;

Reliability analysis, uncertainty quantification, and fragility assessment.

Wildland–Urban Interface Fires and Risk Analysis

Fire spread and exposure mechanisms in WUI environments;

Ember transport, radiant heat, flame contact, and vegetation–structure interactions;

Probabilistic risk assessment and community-scale fire risk modeling;

Resilience-based mitigation strategies for WUI communities.

We welcome contributions that bridge theory, modeling, experimentation, and practical application, supporting the development of performance-based fire engineering and risk-informed fire safety solutions.

Dr. Chenzhi Ma
Dr. Tongchen Han
Dr. Tan Wang
Dr. Maryam Ghodrat
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2400 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.

• thermo-mechanical response
• structural fire design
• machine learning
• risk assessment
• wildland–urban interface fires