Structural fire safety is a crucial aspect of the design of buildings and infrastructures. Significant advances in research have increased the knowledge on this topic. However, until the 1990s, there were few forums for structural fire engineers to exchange ideas and share research findings. SIF (Structures in Fire) specialised workshop series was conceived in the late 1990s and the “First International SIF Workshop” was held in Denmark in 2000, followed by workshops in New Zealand (2002), Canada (2004) and Portugal (2006). The series of workshops evolved into conferences and the 2008 event in Singapore was the fifth International Conference on Structures in Fire. This was followed by events in East Lansing, USA (2010), Zurich, Switzerland (2012), Shanghai, China (2014), New Jersey, USA (2016), Belfast, UK (2018), Brisbane, Australia (2020) and Hong Kong, China (2022). Information about previous conferences, including complete proceedings, can be found at www.structuresinfire.com
The main mission of SIF conferences is to provide an opportunity for researchers and engineers from the global structural fire engineering community to participate, share and discuss the recent findings, innovations and developments on an international level. The special features of SIF include paper submission only a few months before the event, high quality presentations, adequate time for presentation and discussion, specific focus on “structures in fire” theme and affordable cost for participants.
Following the great success of the previous International Conferences, the University of Coimbra was selected to host the 13th International Conference on Structures in Fire in Coimbra, Portugal, from 19 to 21 June 2024. This conference is organised by members of the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE) at the University of Coimbra with the help, support and cooperation of the members of the Scientific Committee.