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Facade Fire

 

Fires involving facades of tall buildings are increasing their worldwide frequency and occurring more than once per month. Facade fires put many people at risk and are responsible for many casualties and large economic losses. The 2017 tragic fire in Grenfell Tower, London, was one of the most devastating fires that caused more than 70 deaths and raised the profile of facade fire hazard. It is vital for us to address the facade fires. ​

  • Façade Flammability and Fire Dynamics

Small-scale and large-scale tests will be conducted to study the facade material fire risk and the fire behavior in different façade system. The objective is to provide a reference for facades design and fire protection of high-rise buildings.

 

  • Façade fire forecast

Based on the experimental data and numerical simulations, a façade fire database will be established. Artificial intelligence will be used to analyze these data in-depth to develop the relationship between façade fire behavior and relevant parameters, thus realizing real-time façade fire prediction. 

Representative publications:

  1. Y. Zhang, X. Huang, A. Usmani (2026) The challenge of optimizing building renovations for urban sustainability and fire safety, Nature Cities, 3, 2–3. 

  2. ​L. Cai, X. Chen, X. Huang (2026) Vertical Fire Spread Behaviors of Spaced Photovoltaic Panels on Building Facade, Applied Thermal Engineering, 301, 131573.

  3. A. Khan, S. Lin, X. Huang, A. Usmani (2023) Facade Fire Hazards of Bench-Scale Aluminum Composite Panel with Flame-Retardant Core, Fire Technology, 59, 5–28. 

  4. Y. Li, Z. Wang, X. Huang (2022) An Exploration of Equivalent Scenarios for Building Facade Fire Standard Tests, Journal of Building Engineering, 52, 104399.

  5. B.Zhou, H. Yoshioka, T. Noguchi, K. Wang, X. Huang (2021) Upward Fire Spread Rate over Real-scale EPS ETICS Façades, Fire Technology, 57, 2007-2024. Featured in SFPE European Magazine

  6. S. Wang, Y. Zhang, X. Huang (2021) Ignition of EPS Foam by a Hollow Particle: Threshold, Auto-ignition, and Fire Point, Combustion and Flame, 232, 111524.

©2026 by PolyU X Fire Lab. 

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