Expert Profile:

Alex Tsiolas

Fire Engineering Manager – AkzoNobel

Area of Expertise:

• Design of structural fire protection systems
• Reviewing structural fire proofing designs

• Analysis of required proof of performance for fire protection
• Interpretation of certification documents & fire test reports
• Consultation on different types of industry testing & certification

• Guide for thickness measurements against design requirements
• Understanding when fire protection is compromised
• Understanding when fire protection needs repairs

• Advise on what materials are commercially available
• Differentiation between types and characteristics of intumescent coatings
• Selection of adequate material and highlighting of pitfalls that may compromise the overall project fire safety

Biography:

Alex Tsiolas is a Fire Engineer at AkzoNobel. He holds a BEng(Hons) in Structural Engineering, MSc in Structural Dynamics and MSc in Fire and Blast Engineering. He has been with AkzoNobel more than 6 years operating in various fields of structural and fire engineering. He started in the company's HQ and centre of excellence in UK as a consultant engineer and member of the global fire protection group. In UK he gained experience in fire resistance testing focused on the performance of intumescent testing. He became proficient in product assessments and certification. While he was there he was in charge of fire engineering initiatives that covered following areas:

• Translation of fire test data to information that can be used by project engineers

• Author passive fire proofing best practice guides for the wider group

• Support the designs of third-party ad-hoc fire tests to address bespoke scenarios

• Participation in European and UK standards committees and forums

• Support regional business development personnel.

He left the company to complete his national military service and then he joined AkzoNobel again in the Middle East head office in Dubai. He now has the role of the regional fire engineering specialist to facilitate better communication with engineering consultancies and support business development. He actively promotes the use of structural fire engineering in new construction and demonstrates the added value of performance based solutions for the optimization of fire proofing.

Presentations Given At SDiB Conferences:

Optimization of Intumescent Coatings using Structural Analysis