Charlotte Röben
- From: Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Qualifications: MEng, University of Edinburgh, 2006
- Supervisors: Dr Martin Gillie and Prof. Jose Torero
- Postgraduate study: Started 2006
PhD Project:
The behaviour of composite structures during the cooling phase of a fire
Understanding structural behaviour of buildings during a fire is accepted as being essential to make full use of the recently introduced performance-based design codes. Currently however the behaviour of structures in the cooling phase of a fire is poorly understood. This project will analyse the behaviour of cooling steel-concrete composite structures to gain an understanding of their behaviour and the underlying mechanics. The results of the models will allow simple design rules to be developed to make certain that buildings do not collapse during the cooling stage of the fire, thus ensuring the required level of safety for both fire- fighters and the public.Project funded by Corus
Main achievements to date:
- BNFL Commendation Award - SET for BRITAIN, Young Engineering Researchers, UK, Parliament. December 12, 2006.
- Universitas 21 Fellowship – Scholarship to visit the University of New South Wales, Australia, for 1 month to collaborate on research. Awarded November 2007.
- Investigating several possibilities of methods of collapse in a case-study multi-storey structure, using finite element modelling tools (ABAQUS) with an imposed temperature loading
Previous projects
Fire induced collapse of multi-storey frames, MEng project
Selected Publications
- Asif Usmani, Charlotte Roben, Louise Johnston, Graeme Flint and Allan Jowsey, Tall building collapse mechanisms initiated by fire, Proceeding of the 4th Workshop on Structures in Fire (SiF'06), Aveiro, Portugal.
- Usmani, A., Flint, G. , Jowsey, A. , Roben, C. , Torero, J., Collapse scenarios of WTC 1 & 2 with extension to generic tall buildings, Proceedings of the Fire Safety in Tall Buildings conference, Santander, Spain, October 2006.
- Roben, C., Gillie, M., Usmani, A., Torero, J, Collapse scenarios for tall buildings in fire during cooling, Proceedings of the 5th International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazards, Edinburgh, UK, April 2007.
- C. Roben, M. Gillie, J. Torero, Behaviour of composite structures during the cooling phase of a fire, Proceeding of the 3rdIinternational Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation, Cape Town, South Africa, September 2007
- Charlotte Roben, Martin Gillie, Structural behaviour during a vertically travelling fire. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures, Volume III, Singapore, December 2007.
- Charlotte Roben, Martin Gillie, The Mechanics of Cooling Beams. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures, Volume III, Singapore, December 2007.
