Two speakers, Dr Abu Saleh and Mr Miki Pavlovic, presented the webinar on 2 December 2021. Dr Abu Saleh Mohammod is an experienced civil engineer and expert in the building materials sector with a wealth of experience in Singapore, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In contrast, Mr Miki Pavlovic has over 12 years of experience in fire protection for the mechanical industry, wholly spent in Asia.

A total of 22 participants attended the webinar. The webinar consisted of two sessions. The first session was on “Concrete – Managing Cracks on Slab-On-Grade “ The second session was on Intumescent Fire Protection of Steel – Why, Where and How”.

The first session emphasized an inherent issue with concrete: it shrinks as it ages, and that’s when cracks will appear. This outcome was not desirable for any slab-on-grade application where the slab is subjected to continuous loading. Dr Abu Saleh, in his presentation, shared his exploration process of managing shrinkage and cracking of concrete slabs.

Next, Mr Miki Pavlovac looked into one of the methods of fire protection, intumescent paint systems, and their effectiveness to protect load-bearing members in structures from fires in various situations through the versatility of testing speed of application, sustainability and applicability to different environments. With the ever-increasing use of structural steel in construction and fire protection being crucial to the integrity of the building and its occupants’ safety, fire protection methods are constantly evolving. Still, the requirements are getting more demanding due to frequent fires around the world.