Dr Xu Dai

Visiting Lecturer in Fire Engineering

Email:: Xu.Dai@bcu.ac.uk

Dr Xu Dai is a Visiting Lecturer in Fire Engineering at the Department of Built Environment at Birmingham City University. He is currently working as a Lecturer in Structural Engineering at the University of Liverpool. You can find more details about him here.

Prior to his current position, he was a Senior Lecturer in Fire Engineering at Birmingham City University in 2022 - 2024, leading the first UK BEng degree apprenticeship in fire engineering. Xu was also a senior structural fire engineer at Buro Happold based in London office in 2021-2022, specialising in structural fire engineering assessment for fire protection optimisation to achieve sustainable engineering design solutions.

Xu also worked at the National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA in 2019-2021, as a foreign guest researcher fully funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce. His work was mainly contributing on the research project Steel-concrete composite floor systems subject to fire, to evaluate structural resilience and failure modes of the steel-composite structure from system level exposed to large compartment fires.

Xu was a post-doctoral research associate at the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, in 2017-2019 (full-time), 2019-2020 (part-time), on research projects Characterization of travelling fires in large compartments, funded by the European Commission (Research Fund for Coal and Steel); Achieving resilience by integrating societal and technical knowledge (Challenging-RISK), and High-performance computing support for United Kingdom Consortium on turbulent reacting flows (UKCTRF), both funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with an integrated focus on characterising realistic fires in large open-plan compartment of office buildings (i.e., “travelling fires”) for sustainable performance-based structural fire design, via both numerical and experimental methods.

Areas of Expertise

Qualifications

Memberships

Teaching

Research

Postgraduate Supervision

Publications

Journal Papers (leading/corresponding authors*)

X. Dai*, S. Welch, A. Usmani, ‘A critical review of “travelling fire” scenarios for performance-based structural engineering’. Fire Safety Journal, 91C (2017) pp. 568-578, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.04.001 (Awards: one of most cited Fire Safety Journal Articles in 2017-2020, by Scopus)
X. Dai*, S. Welch, O. Vassart, K. Cábová, L. Jiang, J. Maclean, C. Clifton, A. Usmani, 'An extended travelling fire method framework for performance-based structural design', Fire and Materials, 44 (2020) pp. 437-457, https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.2810 (Awards: top 10 cited in Fire and Materials journal in 2020-2021, by John Wiley & Sons, Inc)
X. Dai*, A. Gamba, C. Liu, J. Anderson, M. Charlier, D. Rush, S. Welch, ‘An engineering CFD model for fire spread on wood cribs for travelling fires', Advances in Engineering Software, 173 (2022) 103213, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2022.103213
Dai*, L. Choe, E. Fischer, C. Clifton, ‘Thermal and structural response of beam-end shear connections during a large compartment fire experiment’, Fire Technology, (2023), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-023-01452-1
Dai*, N. Alam, A. Nadjai, C. Liu, D. Rush, S. Welch, ‘“Scaling-up” fire spread on wood cribs to predict a large-scale travelling fire test using CFD,’ Advances in Engineering Software,189(2024)103589, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2023.103589
D. Rush*, X. Dai, D. Lange, ‘Tisova Fire Test – fire behaviours and lessons learnt’, Fire Safety Journal, 121 (2021) 103261, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103261
Z. Nan, X. Dai*, H. Chen, S. Welch, A. Usmani, ‘A numerical investigation of 3D structural behaviour for steel-composite structures under various travelling fire scenarios’, Engineering Structures, 267 (2022) 114587, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2022.114587
Q. Guan, X. Dai*, J. Ye*, S. Huang, I. Burgess, ‘Modelling of composite fin-plate connections under fire conditions using component-based method’, Engineering Structures, 264 (2022) 114451, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2022.114451
J. Jiang, Y.L. Lu, X. Dai*, G.Q. Li, W. Chen, J.H. Ye, ‘Disproportionate collapse of steel-framed gravity buildings under travelling fires’, Engineering Structures, 245 (2021) 112799, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2021.112799

Journal Papers (co-authors)

M. Charlier*, A. Gamba, X. Dai, S. Welch, O. Vassart, J. Franssen, ‘Modelling the influence of steel structure compartment geometry on travelling fires’, Proceedings of the ICE - Structures and Buildings, 174 (9) (2021) pp. 739-748, https://doi.org/10.1680/jstbu.20.00073 (Awards: Frederick Palmer Prize, by Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE))
M. Charlier*, A. Glorieux, X. Dai, N. Alam, S. Welch, J. Anderson, O. Vassart, and A. Nadjai, ‘Travelling fire experiments in steel-framed structure: numerical investigations with CFD and FEM’, Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, 12 (3) (2021) pp. 309-327, https://doi.org/10.1108/JSFE-11-2020-0034 (Awards: Emerald Literati Awards, by Emerald Publishing)
J. Anderson*, J. Sjöström, A. Temple, M. Charlier, X. Dai, S. Welch, D. Rush, ‘FDS simulations and modelling efforts of travelling fires in a large elongated compartment’, Fire and Materials, 45 (6) (2020) pp.699-707, https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.2933
L. Choe*, S. Ramesh, X. Dai, M. Hoehler, M. Bundy, ‘Experimental study on fire resistance of a full-scale composite floor assembly in a two-story steel framed building’, Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, 13 (2) (2022) pp. 145-161, https://doi.org/10.1108/JSFE-05-2021-0030
A. Nadjai*, N. Alam, M. Charlier, O. Vassart, X. Dai, J. Franssen, and J. Sjöström, ‘Travelling fire in full scale experimental building subjected to open ventilation conditions’, Journal of Structural Fire Engineering (2022), https://doi.org/10.1108/JSFE-06-2021-0037
N. Alam*, A. Nadjai, M. Charlier, O. Vassart, S. Welch, J. Sjöström, X. Dai, ‘Large scale travelling fire tests and their effect on the surrounding steel structure – the second fire test’, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 188 (2021), 107032, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2021.107032

Research Reports

D. Lange, D. Rush, X. Dai, L. Boström, ‘The Tisova Fire Test, part 1: test report’, RISE Report (2018), p.93, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), Boras, Sweden, ISBN: 978-91-88695-56-7
L. Choe, S. Ramesh, X. Dai, M. Hoehler, M. Bundy, R. A. Bryant, B. Story, A. R. Chakalis, A. A. Chernovsky, ‘Fire resilience of a steel-concrete composite floor system: full-scale experimental evaluation for U.S. prescriptive approach with a 2-hour fire-resistance rating (Test #1)’, NIST Technical Note 2165, (2021), https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2165
L. Choe, S. Ramesh, M. Hoehler, M. Bundy, R. A. Bryant, X. Dai, B. Story, A. R. Chakalis, A. A. Chernovsky, ‘Fire resilience of a steel-concrete composite floor system: full-scale experimental evaluation for influence of slab reinforcement (Test# 2)’, NIST Technical Note 2203, (2022), https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2203
M. Charlier, A. Glorieux, O. Vassart; J.M. Franssen, A. Gamba, F. Dumont; A. Temple, J. Sjöström, J. Anderson; S. Welch, X. Dai, D. Rush; A. Nadjai, N. Alam, ‘Characterization of TRAvelling FIRes in large compartments (TRAFIR)’, Final Report, Research Programme of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, European Commission, Technical Group: TGS8/TGA4, Grant Agreement 754198, (2022)