Travaux magazine: interview with Fire Testing Centre manager, Christophe Tessier

In the report "Tester, calculer et simuler le feu pour mieux prévenir" (Test, Calculate and Simulate Fire for Better Prevention) published in trade press magazine Travaux No. 977, Christophe Tessier, the Manager of the Fire Testing Centre, presented the background to the laboratory, its organization, its resources, and its many projects in France and abroad.

He explains how the Fire Testing Centre has been involved in projects such as the new road-deck slab of Mont Blanc tunnel, the Grand Paris Express rapid-transport link, and the HS2 (High Speed 2) rail line between London and Birmingham, to which it contributed its expertise in fire-resistance testing.

In the report, Christophe Tessier presents the four main services of the Fire Testing Centre: Fire testing, In situ testing to check calculations against real life, Fire Safety Engineering, and Research & Development. For every one of them, he refers to the many projects on which the Centre has worked, not just in France but also in the UK, Canada, and the United States, and he stresses a real desire for greater international development.

The report, which is only available to subscribers, was published in an issue devoted to Underground Works. The Manager of the Centre explains the special factors involved in underground fire testing: “When observing the fire performance of concrete structures in underground works, tests pay special attention to extreme fire conditions such as can be encountered in road tunnels, for example, using severe fire curves like HCM (modified hydrocarbon) and RWS (RijksWaterStaat)”.

As examples he gives the Mont Blanc tunnel and the Grand Paris Express tunnel for which “fire tests were a key point, the final step for giving the go-ahead for casting concrete elements”.

For more information on issue No. 977 of Travaux magazine, click here.