![Dr Juan Hidalgo Medina](/sites/default/files/profiles/15470.png)
Overview
Background
Biography
Dr Juan P. Hidalgo is a Senior Adjunct Fellow within the School of Civil Engineering (honorary position) and is currently a Fire Safety Engineer at Airbus Operations GmbH.
Juan joined The University of Queensland in 2016 as the first of the three academic appointments in the Centre for Future Timber Structures to lead the research and teaching on the fire safety of engineered timber structures. His background is in fire safety engineering, building systems and timber construction. His research to date has primarily focused on the performance of building materials for sustainable and durable construction exposed to fire conditions. Juan's field of expertise comprises material thermal degradation and flammability, heat transfer, and fire dynamics, highlighting his vast experience in multi-scale fire testing. Juan is actively involved in multiple research projects focused on sustainable construction, such as timber, insulation materials, or composites, and studying the fire dynamics in modern buildings. At present, Juan contributes to supervision and research collaborations on fire safety for the built environment with the Fire Safety Engineering Research Group at UQ.
Juan completed his BEng-MEng in Industrial Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), a five-year degree equivalent to Mechanical/Civil Engineering in the UK with a final year specialisation with a particular focus on structural engineering. He also attained an MSc in Industrial Construction and Installations at the same University. During his MSc, Juan joined PBD Fire Consultants S.L., a Spanish company specialising in fire safety design for the built environment. He worked for this company for two years as a consulting fire engineer in multiple national and international projects. Following the completion of his MSc in 2011, Juan joined the University of Edinburgh (UK) to pursue his PhD in Fire Safety Engineering sponsored by Rockwool International A/S, which was completed in 2015 with the thesis entitled “Performance-Based Methodology for the Fire Safe Design of Insulation Materials in Energy Efficient Buildings”. He continued his academic career at the University of Edinburgh as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, being involved in numerous research projects such as the FireComp project, and other projects focused on the fire performance of facades, timber construction, concrete and diverse construction systems.
Previous involvement in Teaching and Learning
During his appointment as academic staff at UQ, Dr Juan P. Hidalgo contributed to the teaching of Civil Engineering Bachelor and Masters programmes, including the BE-ME in Civil and Fire Safety Engineering (EA-accredited) and the MEngSc in Fire Safety Engineering. He was involved in the following courses:
- Introduction to Fire Safety Engineering (FIRE3700).
- Fire Engineering Design: Solutions for Implicit Safety (FIRE4610).
- Fire Dynamics (FIRE7620).
- Fire Dynamics Laboratory (FIRE7640).
- Structural Fire Engineering (FIRE7660).
- Fire Engineering Design: Explicit Quantification of Safety (FIRE7680).
- Research Thesis (FIRE7500).
- Design of Timber Structures (CIVL4334).
Availability
- Dr Juan Hidalgo Medina is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Masters (Coursework), unknown
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh
Research interests
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Fire Safety of Facades and External Cladding
In the last decades, several tall buildings consisting of innovative external wall systems have been involved in disastrous fire events. The use of new products and systems, including combustible materials as external walls, represents a fire hazard in the built environment. This is essentially due to the lack of understanding and characterisation of the fire performance of these products, as well as methodologies and tools to assess their intrinsic fire hazard. At present many existing buildings have combustible façade systems, for example, including Aluminium Composite Panels made of two aluminium sheets bonded with a low-density plastic core or insulation materials. I was the chief investigator leading the Cladding Materials Library project funded by the Department of Housing and Public Works (https://claddingmaterialslibrary.com/). I led the development of an extensive, publicly-available database of combustible cladding materials based on their flammability through an audit of public buildings in Queensland. This database materialises one of the urgent recommendations established by the Queensland Non-Conforming Building Products Audit Taskforce to guarantee the safety of building occupants and emergency services in buildings with combustible cladding. The database is a crucial tool currently being used by fire engineers in the risk assessment and remediation of thousands of buildings affected by combustible cladding.
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Fire Dynamics in Large, Open-Plan Compartments
The study of fire dynamics in compartments establishes the basis for the design of fire safety strategies in buildings. Even though the behaviour of compartment fires has largely been studied, the 'compartment fire' framework currently used for design is based on experimentation of cubic compartments of reduced floor area with low ventilation (Regime I fires). At present, open plan floor compartments are the norm in tall and new buildings, thus deeming the current design framework incomplete. I am working on a series of projects focused on modelling and analysing data from recent full-scale fire experimentation in open floor compartments with large ventilation (Regime II fires), which I contributed to developing when I worked at the University of Edinburgh (https://uqfire-news.org/2019/06/05/malveira-fire-test/).
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Fire Performance of Composite Materials
I collaborate with the UQ Composites Group in numerous projects aiming at the flammability characterisation and elaboration of fire design frameworks of novel composite materials.
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Fundamentals of Bushfires
The study of fire behaviour of bushlands is a research area of relevant need in Australia due to the increasing severity of bushfires. The improvement of risk models for loss prevention requires a fundamental understanding of the behaviour of vegetation under fire conditions. I am working on a couple of small projects aiming at the effect that moisture may play in the flammability of Australian vegetation and the role of convection and radiation in the ignition and flame spread in vegetation.
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Fire Safety of Engineered Mass Timber and Bamboo Structures
There is a growing demand from architects, developers and clients to create buildings from engineered timber products. Timber is both aesthetically appealing and environmentally advantageous; however, fire safety considerations are frequently cited as a major constraint on the use of timber within buildings. I contribute to research in this area and have been actively working to provide engineers with the knowledge and understanding required to build safely with timber – at a large scale. One of the highlighted projects under this theme was the project aimed at developing full-scale fire tests of cross-laminated timber compartments. The project was developed under the umbrella of the ARC Future Timber Hub, and enabled the development of unique tests worldwide (https://sites.google.com/view/arc-future-timber-hub-pr14/). Like timber, bamboo as a construction material has many appealing characteristics, ranging from its ability to sequester carbon during growth and store it for the life of the building, its relatively high strength-to-weight ratio, ease of prefabrication, and high aesthetic value. I have contributed to research in this area, working to provide knowledge on the potential of bamboo as a structural material and its fire performance.
Research impacts
Dr Hidalgo’s main research focus at The University of Queensland has primarily centred on the fire safety of tall buildings and mass timber construction. The research on tall buildings consists of two fundamental aspects: describing the complex fire dynamics in open plan compartments, common of tall buildings, and assessing the external fire spread risk in tall building design due to the use of combustible materials. These are key endeavours to enable the safety of mid and high-rise buildings, supported by his extensive previous contributions in the area of compartment fires and combustible insulation developed throughout his academic career.
With regards to mass timber construction research, since his arrival at UQ, he help lead fire safety research within the Centre for Future Timber Structures and the ARC Future Timber Hub. His expertise in fire safety of timber structures and tall buildings has become instrumental in achieving the main goal of the Hub, which is to enable tall buildings consisting of mass timber structures that are currently inhibited by the unquantifiable fire safety risks. These knowledge gaps are strategically well-aligned with Dr Hidalgo’s expertise.
Works
Search Professor Juan Hidalgo Medina’s works on UQ eSpace
2018
Other Outputs
Literature review of natural fibre composite fire properties
Basnayake, Asanka, Medina, Juan Hidalgo, Vandi, Luigi and Heitzmann, Michael (2018). Literature review of natural fibre composite fire properties. CIC1_16-020-004_002. School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland.
2018
Journal Article
Fire performance of sandwich panels in a modified ISO 13784-1 small room test: the influence of increased fire load for different insulation materials
Crewe, Robert J., Hidalgo, Juan P., Sørensen, Martin X., McLaggan, Martyn, Molyneux, Shirley, Welch, Stephen, Jomaas, Grunde, Torero, Jose L., Stec, Anna A. and Hull, T. Richard (2018). Fire performance of sandwich panels in a modified ISO 13784-1 small room test: the influence of increased fire load for different insulation materials. Fire Technology, 54 (4), 1-34. doi: 10.1007/s10694-018-0703-5
2018
Journal Article
Fire performance of charring closed-cell polymeric insulation materials: polyisocyanurate and phenolic foam
Hidalgo, Juan P., Torero, José L. and Welch, Stephen (2018). Fire performance of charring closed-cell polymeric insulation materials: polyisocyanurate and phenolic foam. Fire and Materials, 42 (4), 358-373. doi: 10.1002/fam.2501
2018
Conference Publication
Novel technologies for tall timber buildings: research streams and three solutions
Fernando, Dilum, Torero, Jose L., Gattas, Joseph, Baber, Kim, Maluk, Cristian and Hidalgo, Juan P. (2018). Novel technologies for tall timber buildings: research streams and three solutions. 24th International Wood Construction Conference (IHF), Congress Centrum, Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER), 5-7 December 2018.
2018
Conference Publication
Fire safety risks in buildings with exposed mass timber structures
Gorska, C. and Hidalgo, J.P. (2018). Fire safety risks in buildings with exposed mass timber structures. IRG49 Scientific Conference on Wood Protection, Johannesburg, South Africa, 29 April – 3 May 2018.
2018
Conference Publication
Enhancing the fire performance of engineered mass timber and its implications to the fire safety strategy
Osorio, Andres F., Hidalgo, Juan P. and Evans, Philip D. (2018). Enhancing the fire performance of engineered mass timber and its implications to the fire safety strategy. 2018 World Conference on Timber Engineering, WCTE 2018, Seoul, Korea, August 20-23, 2018. World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE).
2018
Conference Publication
Accounting for uncertainty in computational fluid dynamics modelling of fully-developed compartment fires
Gupta, V., Cadena, J. E., Hidalgo, J. P., Osorio, A., Maluk, C. and Majdalani, A. (2018). Accounting for uncertainty in computational fluid dynamics modelling of fully-developed compartment fires. 12th International Conference on Performance Based Codes and Fire Safety Design, Honolulu, HI, United States, 23-27 April 2018.
2018
Conference Publication
Development of fire in a CLT compartment and its impact on fire safety of cables
Wachter, Igor, Macdonald, Teagan, Putynska, Carmen Gorska, Medina, Juan Hidalgo and Martinka, Jozef (2018). Development of fire in a CLT compartment and its impact on fire safety of cables. 18th International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference, SGEM 2018, Vienna, Austria, 3-6 December 2018. International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference. doi: 10.5593/sgem2018V/6.4/S09.047
2018
Conference Publication
Flammability studies for the design of fire-safe bamboo structures
Solarte, Angela, Hidalgo, Juan P. and Torero, Jose L. (2018). Flammability studies for the design of fire-safe bamboo structures. 2018 World Conference on Timber Engineering, WCTE 2018, Seoul, South Korea, 20-23 August 2018. WCTE.
2017
Journal Article
Auto-extinction of engineered timber: application to compartment fires with exposed timber surfaces
Bartlett, Alastair I., Hadden, Rory M., Hidalgo, Juan P., Santamaria, Simón, Wiesner, Felix, Bisby, Luke A., Deeny, Susan and Lane, Barbara (2017). Auto-extinction of engineered timber: application to compartment fires with exposed timber surfaces. Fire Safety Journal, 91, 407-413. doi: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.03.050
2017
Journal Article
Energy distribution analysis in full-scale open floor plan enclosure fires
Maluk, Cristian, Linnan, Benjamin, Wong, Andy, Hidalgo, Juan P., Torero, Jose L. , Abecassis-Empis, Cecilia and Cowlard, Adam (2017). Energy distribution analysis in full-scale open floor plan enclosure fires. Fire Safety Journal, 91, 422-431. doi: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.04.004
2017
Journal Article
Description of small and large-scale cross laminated timber fire tests
Emberley, Richard, Gorska Putynska, Carmen, Bolanos, Aaron, Lucherini, Andrea, Solarte, Angela, Soriguer, Diana, Gutierrez Gonzalez, Mateo, Humphreys, Kathryn, Hidalgo, Juan P., Maluk, Cristian, Law, Angus and Torero, Jose L. (2017). Description of small and large-scale cross laminated timber fire tests. Fire Safety Journal, 91, 327-335. doi: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.03.024
2017
Journal Article
An experimental study of full-scale open floor enclosure fires
Hidalgo, J. P., Cowlard, A., Abecassis-Empis, C., Maluk, C., Majdalani, A. H., Kahrmann, S., Hilditch, R., Krajcovic, M. and Torero, J. L. (2017). An experimental study of full-scale open floor enclosure fires. Fire Safety Journal, 89, 22-40. doi: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.02.002
2017
Journal Article
A Thin Skin Calorimeter (TSC) for quantifying irradiation during large-scale fire testing
Hidalgo, Juan P., Maluk, Cristian, Cowlard, Adam, Abecassis-Empis, Cecilia, Krajcovic, Michal and Torero, Jose L. (2017). A Thin Skin Calorimeter (TSC) for quantifying irradiation during large-scale fire testing. International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 112, 383-394. doi: 10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2016.10.013
2017
Conference Publication
The role of mass timber structures in the fire safety of tall buildings
J.P. Hidalgo, D. Fernando, A. Osorio and C. Maluk (2017). The role of mass timber structures in the fire safety of tall buildings. 8th International Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction Management, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 7 – 9 December 2017.
2017
Conference Publication
Fire properties of commingled glass fiber reinforced Polypropylene: an initial investigation
Ghazzawi, Y.M. , Osorio, A.F. , Hidalgo, J.P. , Solarte, A. and Heitzmann, M.T. (2017). Fire properties of commingled glass fiber reinforced Polypropylene: an initial investigation. SAMPE Europe Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, 14-16 November 2017. Stuttgart, Germany: SAMPE.
2017
Conference Publication
Effects of exposed cross laminated timber on compartment fire dynamics
Hadden, Rory M., Bartlett, Alastair I., Hidalgo, Juan P., Santamaria, Simón, Wiesner, Felix, Bisby, Luke A., Deeny, Susan and Lane, Barbara (2017). Effects of exposed cross laminated timber on compartment fire dynamics. 12th International Symposium of Fire Safety Science, Lund, Sweden, 12-16 June 2017. Kidlington, Oxford United Kingdom: Pergamon Press. doi: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.03.074
2017
Conference Publication
An experimental study of medium-scale compartment fire tests with exposed cross laminated timber
Gorska, Carmen, Hidalgo, Juan P. and Torero, Jose L. (2017). An experimental study of medium-scale compartment fire tests with exposed cross laminated timber. 2nd International Fire Safety Symposium, Naples, Italy, 7 - 9 June 2017. Naples, Italy: Doppiavoce.
2017
Conference Publication
Experimental analysis of stone wool sandwich composites exposed to constant incident heat fluxes and simulated parametric fires
Andres Valiente, B. , Hidalgo Medina, Juan, Bisby, L. and van Hees, P. (2017). Experimental analysis of stone wool sandwich composites exposed to constant incident heat fluxes and simulated parametric fires. 15th International Conference Fire and Materials 2017, San Francisco, CA, United States, 6-8 February 2017. Bromley, United Kingdom: Interscience Communications.
2016
Journal Article
Methodology for estimating pyrolysis rates of charring insulation materials using experimental temperature measurements
Hidalgo, Juan Patricio, Gerasimov, Nikolai, Hadden, Rory Miles, Torero, Jose Luis and Welch, Stephen (2016). Methodology for estimating pyrolysis rates of charring insulation materials using experimental temperature measurements. Journal of Building Engineering, 8, 249-259. doi: 10.1016/j.jobe.2016.09.007
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Juan Hidalgo Medina is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Assessment of smouldering in engineered and CCA treated timber products
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Felix Wiesner, Dr Luis Yerman
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Doctor Philosophy
Studying the impact of technological change on the resilience of buildings
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Matthew Mason, Associate Professor David Lange
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Doctor Philosophy
Framework to model the rate of external fire spread rates in facades consisting of combustible cladding
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor David Lange, Dr Felix Wiesner
Completed supervision
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
The role of fuel moisture content on the flammability of Eucalyptus saligna leaf litter
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Mr Jeronimo Carrascal Tirado
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2021
Doctor Philosophy
Open-plan compartment fire dynamics
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor David Lange
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Fire Performance Assessment for the Design of Safe Laminated Bamboo Structures
Principal Advisor
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
Characterisation of the fire dynamics in Ventilated Facades
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Martyn McLaggan, Associate Professor David Lange
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
Parametric Analysis of the Fire Performance of Laminated Veneer Lumber
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor David Lange
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Moisture Safety for Energy-efficient CLT Envelopes: Pathways to Net-zero Operational Energy for Engineered Wood Multi-storey Buildings in Australian Tropical and Subtropical Climates
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Lisa Ottenhaus, Associate Professor Paola Leardini
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Solid-phase temperature analysis and correction for multi-scale fire experimentation
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Felix Wiesner, Associate Professor Jiwon Kim
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Contribution of Convection and Radiation at the Preheating Stage during Fire Spread in Fuel Beds
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Mr Jeronimo Carrascal Tirado, Associate Professor David Lange
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Characterising the material properties that influence fire growth of fire retardant natural fibre composites
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Luigi Vandi, Dr Byron Villacorta, Dr Michael Heitzmann
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2021
Doctor Philosophy
Risk Assessment based on Maximum Allowable Damage
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor David Lange
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Fundamentals of thin intumescent coatings for the design of fire-safe structures
Associate Advisor
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Fire and structural performance of Structural Insulated Panels
Associate Advisor
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Juan Hidalgo Medina directly for media enquiries about:
- Fire Dynamics in Buildings
- Fire Performance of Sustainable Construction
- Fire Safety Engineering
- Fire Testing
- Flammability of Insulation Materials
- Timber Engineering
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