Dr Xu Dai BEng, MSc, PhD
Lecturer in Structural Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Work email Xu.Dai@liverpool.ac.uk
- Personal WebsiteGoogle Scholar
- ORCID0000-0002-9617-7681
Research
Research Overview
Dr Xu Dai's field of expertise is the fire-structure coupling via numerical and experimental methods. He specialises in characterising real fires in large compartments and subsequent critical evaluation of the failure of steel-concrete composite structure from the system level. His ultimate goal is to mitigate the worldwide loss due to structural failure under fire through developing theoretical methods for performance-based design.
He especially enjoys tackling multidisciplinary problems via coupling structural engineering and fire engineering at a first principles level, via combining modelling and experimental techniques. He has been prolific at publishing the work, with 15 journal papers of which 9 as leading/corresponding authors (Google h-index 13, collecting over 400+ citations), including contributions in Engineering Structures, Fire Safety Journal, Advances in Engineering Software, Fire and Materials, Fire Technology, etc. He has supervised 10+ MSc students, co-supervised two PhD students, with another one PhD student as the primary supervisor.
PhD supervision:
Morvarid Koohkhezr, PhD Primary Supervisor, University of Liverpool, UK, 2024 – present
PhD Topic: Design of car parks against fire: is the current guidance adequate?
Funding source: Ashton Fire, University of Liverpool
Hongxin Zhuang, PhD Secondary Supervisor, University of Liverpool, UK, 2024 – present
PhD Topic: Fire financial losses: cost components, methodologies, and the impact of fire safety measures in buildings
Funding source: NTHU PhD Studentship
Chang Liu, PhD Co-Supervisor (external), University of Edinburgh, UK, 2022 – Present
PhD Topic: Characterisation of travelling fires in large compartments using CFD modelling
Zhuojun Nan, PhD Co-Supervisor (external), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, 2020 – 2023
PhD Topic: Towards safer buildings: An integrated approach for structural fire analysis, design and collapse prediction
Funding source: Hong Kong Research Grants Council (T22-505/19-N, SureFire) & Hong Kong Polytechnic University
PhD opportunities:
If you're interested in a PhD project, please contact Xu directly via his email. He could help you gain PhD studentship via different routes.
Research interests:
Steel-composite structural failure from system level in fire
Relevant publications:
1. Thermal and structural response of beam-end shear connections during a large compartment fire experiment
2. A numerical investigation of 3D structural behaviour for steel-composite structures under various travelling fire scenarios
3. Modelling of composite fin-plate connections under fire conditions using component-based method
4. Disproportionate collapse of steel-framed gravity buildings under travelling fires
5. Experimental study on fire resistance of a full-scale composite floor assembly in a two-story steel framed building
6. 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)
7. Fire resilience of a steel-concrete composite floor system: full-scale experimental evaluation for influence of slab reinforcement (Test# 2)
Characterization of realistic fires in the large compartment
Relevant publications:
1. Scaling-up” fire spread on wood cribs to predict a large-scale travelling fire test using CFD
2. An engineering CFD model for fire spread on wood cribs for travelling fires
3. Tisova Fire Test – fire behaviours and lessons learnt
4. Travelling fire in full scale experimental building subjected to open ventilation conditions
5. Modelling the influence of steel structure compartment geometry on travelling fires
6. Travelling fire experiments in steel-framed structure: numerical investigations with CFD and FEM
7. Large scale travelling fire tests and their effect on the surrounding steel structure – the second fire test
8. FDS simulations and modelling efforts of travelling fires in a large elongated compartment
