Fire is a major disturbance affecting ecosystems worldwide. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the evolution of seed persistence (fire resistance) is associated with fire frequency or severity. However, the existence of specific seed traits resulting from natural selection mediated by fire remains a key question in plant evolution. We evaluated the role of fire in the evolution of seed traits...

Climate change is increasing the frequency and extent of high-severity disturbance, with potential to alter vegetation community composition and structure in environments sensitive to tipping points between alternative states. Shrub species display a range of characteristics that promote resistance and resilience to disturbance, and which yield differential post-disturbance outcomes. We investi...

Fire resistance and seismic performance are the two of most important considerations for design construction steel. The fire high-strength steel, Q460FRE, which contains low Mo, was investigated by means creep test under different experiment conditions. Then, Q460FRE after being subjected to various temperatures, characterized internal friction analysis. steel exhibited excellent resistance, yi...

Fire behavior of four aliphatic and two aromatic C, H, O, N, S, and Cl atom containing polymers has been examined. Experiments were performed in three ASTM E 2058 Fire Propagation Apparatuses. The differences in the ignition behavior of polymers were found to be mainly due to differences in the ignition temperature. Chemical effects appear to contribute about 25 % towards the ignition resistanc...

For fire safety purposes, the fire resistance and the structural behavior of reinforced concrete members are assessed to satisfy specific fire performance criteria. The available prescribed provisions are based on standard fire load. Under various fire scenarios, engineers are in need of both heat transfer analysis and structural analysis. For heat transfer analysis, the study proposed a modifi...

A review of the current situation and development of fire safety design for steel structures in China is given in this paper. Several codes and specifications used for fire safety design in China are introduced, and the present design methods are summarized. Then some research achievements on the behavior of steel structures at elevated temperature are presented. The achievements include materi...