Fire Dynamics, Smoke Control and Safety Engineering in Built Environments

Dear Colleagues,

The study of fire dynamics, smoke control, and safety engineering in built environments is a critical and rapidly evolving field of research. With the increasing complexity of modern buildings and the ever-present risk of fire incidents, understanding the behavior of fires and the movement of smoke is essential for designing safe and resilient structures. Fire dynamics encompasses the fundamental principles governing how fires ignite, spread, and interact with building materials and occupants. Smoke control is a crucial aspect of fire safety, as it involves strategies to manage smoke movement to ensure clear evacuation routes and protect building occupants. Safety engineering integrates these principles to develop comprehensive fire protection systems that minimize the risk of injury and property damage. This research area is of paramount importance, as it directly impacts public safety, building design standards, and emergency response protocols.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the importance of fire dynamics, smoke control, and safety engineering in built environments, which are crucial areas for enhancing fire safety and protecting human life and property. The proposed issue will focus on a broad range of topics, including but not limited to fundamental and applied research on fire behavior, smoke management strategies, and safety and risk analysis, as well as emerging challenges such as sustainable building design and advanced modeling techniques. This Special Issue is intended to foster multidisciplinary dialogue, drive innovation, and address the evolving needs in fire safety science and engineering, aligning with the journal’s commitment to advancing knowledge and promoting excellence in the field of fire safety.

This issue seeks high-quality research tackling challenges and solutions for the fire safety of built environments.

Topics of interest encompass:

1. Building Fire Dynamics and Extreme Fire Behavior (including but not limited to: mechanisms and prediction of special phenomena such as flashover, backdraft, and fire whirls in buildings; fire behavior of novel and sustainable building materials).
2. Building Smoke Exhaust Systems and Control Engineering (including but not limited to: smoke generation and transport mechanisms in building fires; optimal design of natural and mechanical smoke exhaust systems for buildings; smoke management in architectural special spaces like large atria and tunnels).
3. Occupant Safety and Evacuation in Building Fire Environments (including but not limited to: modeling of human behavior and decision-making during building fires; evacuation dynamics of high-density and special populations inside buildings).
4. Simulation and Experimental Methods for Building Fire Safety (including but not limited to: high-fidelity application and validation of CFD and field models for building fires; advanced measurement techniques in building fire experiments).
5. Design and Performance-Based Assessment of Building Fire Protection Systems (including but not limited to: collaborative design of active and passive fire protection systems in buildings; efficacy assessment of building fire protection systems based on full-scale experiments or simulations).
6. Fire Safety Challenges in Novel and Special Buildings (including but not limited to: fire protection strategies for super-high-rise buildings and large complexes; performance-based fire protection design and retrofitting of historical heritage structures).
7. AI and Data-Driven Methods for Building Fire Safety (including but not limited to: machine learning-based prediction and risk assessment for building fires; computer vision for fire and smoke recognition in buildings; data-driven models for the optimization of building fire protection systems and analysis of occupant behavior).

Research articles and reviews focusing on case studies, lessons learned from incidents, and practical engineering solutions enhancing fire safety of built environments are particularly encouraged.

Dr. Peng Hu
Dr. Lei Deng
Dr. Junfeng Chen
Dr. Zeng Long
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-blind 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.

• fire dynamics
• smoke control
• safety engineering
• built environments
• fire safety
• human behavior