Personal Statement
Dr Xu Dai is a Lecturer in Structural Engineering at the University of Liverpool, specialised in fire safety engineering. He had a RAEng/Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship from Royal Academy of Engineering as one of the seven awardees for 2024/25. His research is centred in structural fire engineering to mitigate losses arising from fire-induced structural failure worldwide by developing theoretical methods for performance-based design, via coupling structural engineering and fire engineering using advanced modelling and experimental techniques.

Prior to his current position, he was a Senior Lecturer in Fire Engineering at Birmingham City University in 2022 - 2024, leading the first UK BEng degree apprenticeship in fire engineering. Xu was also a senior structural fire engineer at Buro Happold based in London office in 2021 - 2022, specialising in structural fire engineering assessment for fire protection optimisation to achieve sustainable engineering design solutions.

In 2019 - 2021, Xu was a foreign guest researcher at the National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. He was fully funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce. His work was mainly contributing on the research project Steel-concrete composite floor systems subject to fire, to evaluate structural resilience and failure modes of the steel-composite structure from system level exposed to large compartment fires.

In 2017 - 2020, Xu was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh, on research projects Characterization of travelling fires in large compartments funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) in European Commission; and Challenging-RISK, funded by EPSRC with an integrated focus on characterising realistic fires in large open-plan compartment of office buildings (i.e., “travelling fires”) for sustainable performance-based structural fire design, via both numerical and experimental methods.

Education:
Ph.D. in Fire Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK, 2013 – 2018
M.Sc. in Structural Engineering (with distinction), University of Sheffield, UK, 2011 - 2012
BEng in Engineering Mechanics (with first class), Chongqing Jiaotong University, China, 2005 – 2009

PhD opportunities:
If you're interested in a PhD project, please contact Xu directly via his email. He can help you to gain PhD studentship via different routes.

Research Overview
Dr Xu Dai's field of expertise is the fire-structure coupling via numerical and experimental methods. He specialises in characterising real fires in large compartments and subsequent critical evaluation of the failure of steel-concrete composite structure from the system level. His ultimate goal is to mitigate the worldwide loss due to structural failure under fire through developing theoretical methods for performance-based design.

He especially enjoys tackling multidisciplinary problems via coupling structural engineering and fire engineering at a first principles level, via combining modelling and experimental techniques. He has been prolific at publishing the work, with 19 journal papers of which 10 as leading/corresponding authors (Google h-index 16, collecting over 700+ citations), including contributions in Engineering Structures, Fire Safety Journal, Advances in Engineering Software, Fire and Materials, Fire Technology, etc. He is currently supervising three PhD students as the primary supervisor, and four PhD students as the co-supervisor. He has also supervised 10+ MSc/MEng/BEng students.

Current PhD students as a primary supervisor:
Billy-Ray Slaughter, University of Liverpool, UK, 2026 – present
PhD Topic: Reliable AI-driven Fire Safety Design: Enhancing CFD Modelling Efficiency with Trustworthy AI
Funding source: SOCOTEC UK & Ireland, University of Liverpool
Xiyue Ming, University of Liverpool, UK, 2025 – present
PhD Topic: Quantifying Fire Size, Structural Failure, and Water Pollution from Lithium-Ion Battery Fires in Ro-Ro Cargo Maritime Firefighting
Funding source: Artec Fire Ltd, EPSRC N0MES CDT, University of Liverpool
Morvarid Koohkhezri, University of Liverpool, UK, 2024 – present
PhD Topic: Design of car parks against fire: is the current guidance adequate?
Funding source: Ashton Fire, University of Liverpool, Research England

Current PhD students as a co-supervisor:
James B., secondary supervisor, University of Liverpool, UK, 2025 – present
PhD Topic: Unravelling the Data Behind Battery Fires
Funding source: EPSRC N0MES CDT, University of Liverpool
Richard Clark, secondary supervisor, University of Liverpool, UK, 2025 – present
PhD Topic: The role of fire statistics in the assessments and improvements of fire safety regulations in the UK
Funding source: Fire Service Research & Training Trust
Hongxin Zhuang, secondary supervisor, University of Liverpool, UK, 2024 – present
PhD Topic: Fire financial losses: cost components, methodologies, and the impact of fire safety measures in buildings
Funding source: NTHU PhD Studentship, Graduate Association Hong Kong & Tung Postgraduate Scholarships
Chang Liu, co-Supervisor (external), University of Edinburgh, UK, 2022 – Present
PhD Topic: Characterisation of travelling fires in large compartments using CFD modelling

Previous PhD students:
Zhuojun Nan, co-Supervisor (external), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, 2020 – 2023
PhD Topic: Towards safer buildings: An integrated approach for structural fire analysis, design and collapse prediction
Funding source: Hong Kong Research Grants Council (T22-505/19-N, SureFire) & Hong Kong Polytechnic University

PhD opportunities:
If you're interested in a PhD project, please contact Xu directly via his email. He can help you to gain PhD studentship via different routes.

Research interests: