Relevant Publications

The following publications were derived from participations on a technical level by our Principal.

Fire Code Reform Centre projects –Contributed to a number of core sub-models for the development of the original CESARE-Risk model which is an ‘all-encompassing’ risk-based model that was designed to provide a comprehensive Level 3 analysis to fire systems design of buildings. Also contributed to the modelling solutions for the low-rise Sprinklered shopping centre Project 6.
FCRC Project 6 Fire Safety of Shopping Centres– Modelled occupant escape times and smoke spread and gas temperature levels in shopping centre fires in FCRC Project 6 (Fire Safety Systems for Sprinklered Low-rise Shopping Centres).
Fire Engineering Guidelines– Contribution to the development of the Fire Engineering Guidelines (FEG) as part of the Fire Code Reform Centre Project 5A on chapters 8, 10 and App. 10A on Fire and Flame Spread. The FEG was written to provide guidance on design methodologies in fire safety. Whilst version 2 has been released, the original version is still widely used and preferred for its direct ‘concept and methods’ approach.
Emergency Egress for the Disabled– Whilst access provisions are being made available in buildings for the disabled to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, buildings that are more than a few stories high still only has access via lifts. In a fire emergency, occupants have to rely on the use of stairs to evacuate which is not amenable to disabled occupants. Various egress strategies were proposed for the consideration by the Australian Building Codes Board.
Warren Centre Fire Safety Engineering Project– Develop a comprehensive fire risk model based on input from Australia’s leading experts on fire safety to assess risk to life of occupants in apartment and office buildings and its economic impact. Much of the work accomplished in this project set the basis for the drafting of the National Building Fire Safety Systems Code.
Fire Risk Assessment Model –Developed the original fire risk assessment model for determining cost-effective solutions for effects of fire in office buildings that incorporated consideration of occupation behaviour and egress, lifts, passive and active systems, fire growth and spread and economic impact. This model lead the way to the development of Canada’s NRCC FireCam fire risk model and VUT’s CESARE FireRisk model.
Tunnel Fire Safety –Drafting of the Australian Standard DR AS 4825. The standard was intended to provide a generic framework for establishing the fire safety systems that are required in road, rail or bus tunnels to provide an acceptable level of safety in case of fire.

The following papers were contributions from key staff members.

Poon, L., “Performance-Based Design – Limits of Practice”, SFPE 9th International Conference on Performance-Based Codes and Fire Safety Design Methods, 20-22 June, Hong Kong, 2012
Poon, L., “Assessing the Role of Sprinklers in Passive Protection for Structures”, 4th Annual Symposium on Development & Implementation of Fire Engineering for the Next Decade, 3 May 2012
Poon, L., “Risk Analysis of Underground Stations and Tunnels”, Risk Engineering Society Conference – Delivering Major Initiatives, Risk 2010, 10-12 March 2010, Melbourne.
Poon, L., “Fire Engineering of Mega Structures”, Fire Asia 2009, 9-11 February 2009, Hong Kong.
Poon, L., “The Use of Risk Analysis to Achieve Consistency in the Fire and Life Safety Design of Road Tunnels”, 13th Australian Tunnelling Conference 2008, 4-7 May 2008, Melbourne, Australia.
Poon, L., “Important Design Factors For Regulating Performance-Based Fire Safety Engineering Design Of Buildings In Australia”, 7th Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Science & Technology 20-22 Sep, 2007 Hong Kong.
Poon, L, “Important Design Factors for Regulating Performance-Based Fire Safety Engineering Design of Road Tunnels”, World Roads Conference, Singapore Expo, 27-29 September 2006.
Poon, L, Lau, R., “Fire Risks in Metro Tunnels and Stations”, A special issue on: Safety and Risk Management, International Journal of Performability Engineering, Vol. 2, Number 4, October 2006.
Poon, L, and Gardner, P., “Fire Safety Engineering in Australia – A Critical Review and Preliminary Recommendations for Design Consistency”, 6th International Conference on Performance-Based Codes and Fire Safety Design Methods, 14-16 June 2006, Tokyo, Japan.
Poon, L. and Lau, R., “Regulating Fire Safety Engineering Design of Australian Road Tunnels”, Fire Safety Engineering, International Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, 24-25 May 2006.
Poon, L, Lau, R., “Fire Risks in Metro Tunnels and Stations”, Proceedings of the 2005 Asia-Pacific Conference on Risk Management and Safety, Hong Kong, 1-2 December 2005.
Poon, S.L., “Modelling Fire Development for Fire Engineering Design”, 4th International Conference on Performance-Based Codes and Fire Safety Design Methods, 20-22 March 2002, Melbourne.
Poon, S.L., Thomas, I.R., Bennetts, I.D., Kotousov, A., Beck, V.B., “Simplified models for predicting barrier failure times”, Australasian Structural Engineering Conference, 29 September – 2 October, 1998, New Zealand
Poon, S.L., “Predicting the Time to Flashover”, Third Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Science and Technology, June 1998.
L. Poon, “A Design Fire for Use in Predicting The Performance of Exposed Structural Steel Members”, Fourth Pacific Structural Steel Conference, Singapore, 25-27 October 1995.
L. Poon, I.D. Bennetts and I.R. Thomas, “Performance Based Approach for Designing Steel Members in Fire”, Fourth Pacific Structural Steel Conference, Singapore, 25-27 October 1995.
L. Poon, “EvacSim – A Simulation Model of Occupants with Behavioural Attributes in Emergency Evacuation of High-Rise Building Fires”, Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Fire Safety Science, Ottawa, Canada, 13-17 June, 1994.
L. Poon and V. R. Beck, “Numerical Modelling of Human Behaviour During Egress in Multi-Storey Office Building Fires using EvacSim – Some Validation Studies”, ASIAFLAM ‘95, Hong Kong, 15-16 March, 1995.