Infrastructure and Environment

Dr Ricky Carvel is Senior Lecturer in Fire Dynamics in the Edinburgh Fire Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Originally from Edinburgh he studied at St Andrews University, obtaining a BSc (hons) in Chemistry and Physics in 1992 and an MPhil in Chemistry in 1994. Since then he has worked for the University of Aberystwyth, Heriot-Watt University, International Fire Investigators and Consultants and the University of Edinburgh.

He is editor of the ‘Handbook of Tunnel Fire Safety’ (2nd Edition, ICE Publishing, 2011) and was associate editor of Fire Safety Journal (2009-2015). He has been working in the field of fire science and tunnel fire phenomena since 1998. 

His research work has focussed on the interaction between fires and ventilation (specifically tunnel ventilation systems, crosswinds and, currently, underventilated fires such as in basements and ships' holds). In 2004 he was awarded a PhD from Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, Scotland) for his thesis “Fire Size in Tunnels”. In addition to fire vs. ventilation research, he has also been involved into research in dust explosions, ignition, material flammability, CFD modelling and fire suppression.

As well as his teaching and research responsibilities at the University, he currently provides fire safety engineering consultancy services to a number of different companies, primarily with regards to tunnel fire safety and fire dynamics. He has authored more than 20 journal papers and more than 40 conference papers. 

He was runner up in the 'best course' category at the 2018 EUSA Teaching Awards.

He currently teaches the courses "Fire Science & Fire Dynamics" and "Models for Fire Safety" to undergraduate and MSc students. 

• PhD, National Technical University of Athens
• Post-Graduate Diploma for Teaching in Higher Education, NIE Singapore
• BEng, Tongji University
• MSc, Southeast University

• Associate Editor, International Journal of Protective Structures
• Member, Intl Society for Soil Mechanics & Geotechnical Eng
• CEng Chartered Engineer (Registered with the Engineering Council)
• Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 447: Finite Element Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structures
• Fellow, Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE)
• Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers (FASCE)
• ASCE Technical Committee: Structural Identification of Constructed Systems
• ACI Committee 370: Design for Blast and Impact

• Damage diagnosis, strengthening and retrofitting of structures
• Dynamic testing, condition assessment and health monitoring of structures
• Numerical modelling of concrete and cementitious composites for complex and high rate loading
• Performance and reliability of structures under seismic/dynamic loading
• Structures under shock/impact/blast loading

• Special Issue on Concrete Structures Subjected to Shock and Blast Loading, Structural Engineering and Mechanics - An International Journal (Guest Editor: Y. Lu)
• Defence Technology Prize 2006 by the Ministry of Defence, Singapore
• PhD studentship opportunities in computational modelling of brittle/composite materials for high impulsive loading; integrated structural health monitoring. Enquiry: yong.Lu@ed.ac.uk.
• Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award 2004 by the Institution of Engineers, Singapore

Chang Liu is a PhD student supervised by Drs Stephen Welch and David Rush at the Edinburgh Fire Research Centre (The University of Edinburgh) working on the topic of 'Characterisation of Travelling Fires in Large Compartments Using CFD modelling', following on from my research on the pertinent issues regarding the cooling phase of travelling fires as a Structural & Fire Safety Engineering (SAFE) MSc Student at Edinburgh. He has expertise in carrying out numerical simulations (mainly CFD-based) of full-scale compartment fire tests under the High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment e.g. ECDF Eddie and ARCHER2, c/o UKCTRF project. Having background in both civil and fire safety engineering, he also has experience in characterising thermo-mechanical response of fire-exposed structural members. 

Edinburgh Fire Research Centre: https://www.fire.eng.ed.ac.uk/

• PhD in Fire Safety Engineering, The University of Edinburgh 2022-present
• MSc in Structural and Fire Safety Engineering, The University of Edinburgh 2019-2021

• CFD-Based Computational Modelling of Fire Related Problems in the Built Environment
• Fire Behaviours in Large Open-Plan Compartments (Predominately With Wood Cribs as Fuels)
• Pyrolysis and Ignition of Cellulosic Materials
• Enclosure Fire Dynamics

Room 1.4, John Muir Building, https://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/maps?building=0605

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