SPECIALTIES
Fire dynamics in mass timber enclosures; Pyrolysis modelling of timber; Fire resistance requirements in single storey industrial and warehouse buildings; Fire hazard assessment of wall and ceiling linings; Fire zone modelling; Fire behaviour of HVAC duct and pipe insulation materials; The relationship between fire severity and time-equivalence; Developing probabilistic design fires for performance-based fire safety engineering; Framework for performance-based fire engineering design; Cost effectiveness analysis of home sprinkler systems; Soot yield values for modelling purposes in residential occupancies; Fire loss reduction in industrial buildings; Costs and benefits of regulating fire safety performance of upholstered furniture in NZ; Determining fire separation between buildings based on the limiting distance method; Fire performance of exterior claddings; Concrete blade columns in fire; Performance of concrete floors exposed to real fires; Fire resistance of New Zealand concretes
Biography
Colleen has worked in the fire safety field for 35 years and currently is a founding director and co-owner of Fire Research Group based in New Zealand. Colleen was heavily involved in the fire technical input required for the introduction of a performance-based building code in New Zealand in 1992, and in the development of the New Zealand Verification Method C/VM2 for Protection from Fire in 2012. She has done research and consultancy for MBIE (previously Department of Building and Housing, New Zealand) and for the Australian Building Codes Board - Fire Code Reform Centre. Colleen is also involved in ISO and SFPE activities internationally including as a convenor of a working group and project leader for several ISO Technical Specifications and Standards. At BRANZ, Colleen became a leading expert on matters related to fire science and fire safety engineering research in her previous roles as Senior Fire Research Scientist, Principal Engineer and Fire Research Manager.
Colleen’s areas of research expertise include compartment fire modelling, flame spread over interior surfaces and external cladding, post flashover fires and fire dynamics in mass timber buildings. She is best known internationally as the developer of the B-RISK/BRANZFIRE fire model. Colleen has a BBSc (Building Science Honours 1st Class) from Victoria University of Wellington, an MS (Fire Protection Engineering) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA and a PhD (Fire Engineering) from the University of Canterbury. In 2020, Colleen became a founding director of Fire Research Group Limited, a specialist consultancy engaged in expert advice, research and education