Closure Words

After two successful workshops in Leipzig (2009) and Delft (2011), the 3rd International Workshop on Concrete Spalling due to Fire Exposure was held in Paris from 25 to 27 September 2013.

This event was co-organized by CSTB and INSA de Rennes, supported by fib and RILEM, and sponsored by CIMBETON, MFPA, CERIB and FNTP.

The workshop was attended by over 90 participants from 20 countries. The technical program featured 33 oral presentations and 7 posters with short oral presentations.

The proceedings are available online on the RILEM and MATEC websites.

Contributions have provided a worldwide corpus of knowledge and progress on the investigation of the phenomenon of concrete spalling due to fire exposure: understanding underlying processes, identifying key properties and assessing local versus global behaviour of concrete and concrete structures.

The workshop was dedicated to the memory of Prof. Ulrich Diederichs Schneider, a pioneer who will remain a symbol for all the community working on this research field. His long-time colleague and friend, Prof. Ulrich Diederichs, presented the highlights of his distinguished career and life.

The high quality of contributions reflects that a significant progress has already been done. Nevertheless, contributions have also highlighted the need to push the limits of knowledge further for a better mastering of involved mechanisms and their complex inter-relationships. For this purpose, integrated Material-Structure and Experiment-Modelling approaches will be the challenge to be taken up in order to elaborate solutions that minimise the risk of fire spalling.

The workshop was an opportunity to symbolically encourage younger researchers to contribute to this challenge. 25% of the presentations were given by PhD students. A price was awarded to Kevin Mueller from University of Notre Dame (USA) for his presentation entitled "Design and Performance of a Skid-Mounted Portable Compartment Fire Gas Furnace and Monitoring System".

In the continuity of the two previous editions, the third workshop Fire Spalling 2013 was a successful event according to your various positive appreciations. There is no doubt that either your high-quality presentations and or your active contributions to the very stimulating discussions were the key ingredients of the workshop success. Of course, any event is perfectible and we appreciated your encouragements and also your comprehension during the entire event.

On behalf of the organization committee, we would once again to thank you for your participation to the workshop Fire Spalling 2013.

Please note that the next workshop edition Fire Spalling 2015 will be held in Leipzig on October 8th and 9th, 2015.

Looking forward to meeting you there.

Sincerely yours,

Pierre Pimienta, Chairman

Fekri Meftah, Co-Chairman

Post-scriptum

-          Links to RILEM TC-227 report and fib TG-4.3 report during Session 2.3

-          Link to the photos gallery.