Stephen Welch

Background

About Stephen Welch

Stephen has a PhD in combustion and over 25 years of experience in fire research and teaching. He worked for a decade at BRE's Fire Research Station, including full-scale fire tests at BRE Cardington, before joining the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh in 2004. His main research interests have been in the development and validation of computer modelling methods for fire-related problems in building and transport applications, spanning fluid dynamics, combustion, toxic species, smoke, heat transfer and human behaviour. His current research focusses on generalised methods for structural fire safety engineering encompassing "travelling fires"(TRAFIR and SureFire projects), dynamics and simulation of travelling and post-flashover fires (Real Fires for Safe Design of Tall Buildings), pressure vessel fire behaviour (composites in FireComp, and steel), design methodologies for thermal insulation in energy efficient buildings (Rockwool), real-time emergency management techniques exploiting sensor-linked model for fire and egress (FireGrid/Intelligent egress), including study of ICU evacuations (NHS Lothian) & modelling tools (Oasys MassMotion, Pathfinder). Stephen's teaching is related to fire safety engineering practice, providing a training in engineering approaches to applied problems, with critique and analysis of relevant regulations, codes and design principles. He was Programme Director for the one-year MSc Structural and Fire Safety Engineering (SAFE) 2008-2023 (110+ graduates), and a management board member for the International Master in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE)(300+ graduates). He was Discipline Programme Manager for Civil & Environmental Engineering 1/1/14-30/4/18 & 14/3-14/8/22. Specialities: Fire safety engineering, fire modelling, travelling fire, composite pressure vessels, sensor-linked fire models, egress, ICU evacuation, toxic species, soot, flame spread, thermal analysis, glazing, codes & standards.