Academic Profile : Faculty

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Prof Tan Kang Hai
Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Prof Tan Kang Hai is Director of Protective Technology Research Centre (PTRC) in CEE School. Prof Tan’s research work formed the technical basis of the circular from Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) on “Fire Safety Design of Multi-storey steel-framed buildings with composite slabs”. In 2014, he secured an MND fund to develop a safe and cost-effective design for Singapore’s mega underground cavern developments. The research resulted in an innovative design concept for underground life safety and technical disclosures for fire protection coating and cementitious concrete composites. With a strong support from MHA, he is involved in drafting of a Singapore design guide to mitigate progressive collapse of structures.

Prof Tan has authored/co-authored close to 230 SCI top-tier international journal publications. From Google Scholar, he has 7209 citations with an H-index of 47. He won the “Certificate for Highly Cited Research" in Engineering Structures. Out of 31 PhD students he graduated, about one-third are in academia. Prof Tan has given about 60 keynotes and invited seminars, and 90 professional short courses to engineering fraternity.

A registered Professional Engineer in Singapore since 1996, he is also a Specialist PE (Protective Security) from 2019 from his many research projects with DSTA. He sits in the HDB Civil & Structural Engineering Advisory Panel and serves as one of the two external panel members for HDB Engineering Awards. He is Deputy-Chair of Institution of Engineer Singapore (IES) for Technical Committee of Infrastructure Cluster and serves as a member in the National Scientific Review Panel for MND for City of Tomorrow grant call. He is in the technical committee (Building Structure & Sub-structure) 17th Standards Council Term and represents IES in the Selection Panel for certifying Fire Safety Engineers since 2005. Currently, he is Chairman of the Appeals Advisory Board for Infrastructure Protection (IPA) Act. He has been a member of Fire Safety Appeals Board Committee from 2005 to 2016.

His engineering consultancies often involved performance-based approach to fire scenarios or progressive collapse resistance analysis. He is a specialist consultant to HDB on a PPVC project and Changi Airport Group on Terminal 5. His motto is that research through laboratory testing of structures and mechanical models should translate into practical design guides and influence engineering practice.
Prof Tan's research interests include fire effects on steel, concrete and composite steel structures, strut and tie modelling of RC structures, beam-column joint behaviour, progressive collapse resistance testing and nonlinear finite element analysis.
 
  • Analysing Precast Concrete Structure
  • Blast Resistance and Fire Resistance of Concrete Structures and Materials
  • Blast-Resistant Precast Concrete Façade Walls
  • Development of a thermally insulative epoxy-based FRP system
  • Development of sustainable concrete materials with industrial waste and bacteria
  • Full-scale fire testing to validate simulations for (a) integrated active systems and (b) structural system for underground buildings
  • Full-scale fire testing to validate simulations for (a) integrated active systems and (b) structural system for underground buildings (PI: Aravind)
  • Full-scale fire testing to validate simulations for (a) integrated active systems and (b) structural system for underground buildings (PI: Tan Kang Hai)
  • Full-scale fire testing to validate simulations for (a) integrated active systems and (b) structural system for underground buildings (PI: Teoh Bak Koon)
  • Full-scale fire testing to validate simulations for (a) integrated active systems and (b) structural system for underground buildings (PI: Wan Man Pun)
  • Full-scale fire testing to validate simulations for (a) integrated active systems and (b) structural system for underground buildings (PI: Zhao Ou)
  • Long-term Trial of High-temperature Sludge Gasification and Investigating the Use of Sludge Slag in Structural Concrete Applications
  • SCARCE Phase 2: RT3 Recycling and Recovery of strategic metals and rare earth from PCBs and beyond
  • Sustainable building materials and fire-resistant coating
  • Sustainable concrete and functionalized geopolymer derived from MSW slag, a by-product generated from the high temperature slagging gasification of municipal solid waste (MSW)
  • Sustainable Solutions for Blast-Resistant Structures: Innovative Materials and Connections
  • Topic 5: Large-scale applications of carbon in concrete (WP4) (IAF-ICP)
  • Vulnerability Assessment of Precast Reinforced Concrete Structures to Blast and Subsequent Progressive Collapse
  • Vulnerability Assessment of Precast Reinforced Concrete Structures to Blast and Subsequent Progressive Collapse (PI: Fung Tat Ching)
  • Vulnerability Assessment of Precast Reinforced Concrete Structures to Blast and Subsequent Progressive Collapse (PI: Ivan Au)
  • Vulnerability Assessment of Precast Reinforced Concrete Structures to Blast and Subsequent Progressive Collapse (PI: Tan Kanghai)