Recent areas of research include:

• Computer Modelling
• Fire Dynamics
• Structural Fire Performance
• Active Fire Protection Systems
• Human Behaviour
• Fire Statistics and Risk : Fire Service : Fire Codes and Regulations : Building Information Modelling

Fire statistics and risk

Recent work on fire statistics has focused on fires in parking buildings and tunnel design fires. The New Zealand Fire Service maintains statistics on fires and this data is useful for our research.

Key publications

• Cheong, M.K., Spearpoint, M.J. and Fleischmann, C.M. (2008) Using the peak heat release rate to determine the fire risk level of road tunnels. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part O: Journal of Risk and Reliability, 222, 4, 595-604.
• Li Y., Spearpoint M.J. (2007) Analysis of vehicle fire statistics in New Zealand parking buildings. Fire Technology, 43, 2, 93-106.

Building information modelling

Ongoing research is looking at integrating building information models with fire simulation software. Work initially focused on the IFC building model and linking it with zone models such as BRANZFIRE. More recent work has developed the tool to link with FDS and the use of XML to creata fire information databases.

Key publications

• Tobeck D O, Spearpoint M J, Fleischmann C M. Data Structures for Fire Test Information Exchange Using XML. Fire Technology. [weblink]
• Dimyadi, J., Spearpoint, M. and Amor, R. (2009) Sharing Building Information using the IFC Data Model for FDS Fire Simulation. Karlsruhe, Germany: Ninth International Symposium on Fire Safety Science, 21-26 September 2008. 1329-1340.
• Spearpoint, M. J. (2007) Transfer of architectural data from the IFC building product model to a fire simulation software tool. Journal of Fire Protection Engineering, 17, 4, 271-292.
• Dimyadi, J.A.W., Spearpoint, M.J. and Amor, R. (2007) Generating Fire Dynamics Simulator geometrical input using an IFC-based building information model. Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 12, 443-457.
• Claridge E, Spearpoint M. Fire fighter stair climbing speeds in high rise buildings. Proc. 8th Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Science and Technology (AOSFST), Melbourne, Australia, 7 – 9 Dec 2011
• Merry A, Spearpoint M J. The New Zealand Building Act 2004 and the involvement of the New Zealand Fire Service. Proc. 7th International Conference on Performance-Based Codes and Fire Safety Design Methods, Auckland, New Zealand, pp.47-58, 2008.

Fire Service

Research has looked at the interaction between the New Zealand Fire Service and the Building Code. More recent work has to be carried out on updating the Fire Brigade Intervention Model (FBIM) to include New Zealand specific data.