It has been observed in recent times that the fire hazards due to various reasons, cause lot of damage to human life and property. In addition, in applications like aircraft engine test cells, turbojet runways, nuclear reactor vessels and missile launching pads, materials are subjected to sustained elevated temperature. Thus elevated temperature is caused due to industrial application and also in case of accidental fire.
Hence it has become very important and essential to study the properties of materials and also structures subjected to elevated temperatures. It is also felt necessary to study the ‘fire rating’ of emerging materials. With this objective, The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, has established a center of excellence for Fire Research of building materials.