Faculty Interests
The research topics below are of particular interest to individual professors. Students are encouraged to explore these topics as candidates for independent study projects, theses or dissertations.
Nicholas A. Dembsey
Fire properties of materials and protective clothing via bench-top scale experimentation; compartment fire dynamics via residential scale experimentation, evaluation, development and validation of compartment fire models, performance fire codes, engineering design tools, and engineering forensic tools
Specific Research Topics (April 2003)
Independent Study:
- Room of Origin Fire Hazard Analysis [funding available from SFPE].
- Development of data acquisition software for bench and residential scale test apparatuses.
- Hardware development for bench and residential scale test apparatuses.
Independent Study/MS Thesis:
- Bench scale evaluation of material system flammability.
- Residential scale evaluation of material system flammability.
- Thermo-mechanical evaluation of materials.
- Development of Performance Codes [various aspects in conjunction with ICC].
Independent Study/MS Thesis/PhD Dissertation:
-
Develop better understanding of simple and complex material systems' flammability (FRP composites, interior finishes, furniture).
- Evaluation of existing and development of new theories addressing the gas and condensed phases.
- Development of proper test methods for bench, intermediate and large scale.
- Apparatus development for bench and intermediate scale.
- Development of instrumentation for bench, intermediate and large scale experiments.
- Study compartment fire dynamics via residential scale experiments.
- Development, evaluation and validation of models for material flammability and compartment fire dynamics.
- Development of engineering tools for materials flammability characterization and compartment fire dynamics.
Leonard D. Albano
Performance of structural members, elements, and systems at elevated temperatures; structural design for fire conditions; simplified or design office techniques for fire-structure interaction; relationship between building construction systems and fire service safety.
Brian J. Meacham
Principal areas of focus include risk-informed performance-based design and regulation, fire risk management, risk perception and decision making in fire, and egress and evacuation issues and strategies. Other areas of interest include fire detection and alarm systems, smoke management, fire response of structures, multi-hazard mitigation in buildings, emergency responder decision making and communication, risk, reliability and uncertainty issues in fire engineering and regulation, resilient and sustainable buildings and communities, and multi-disciplinary approaches to address risk and security issues.
Sepcific Research Topics:
- Post-earthquake fire performance of building fire safety systems and strategies
- Risk-informed performance-based building regulatory frameworks
- Adaptive management concepts in fire safety regulation, mitigation, and emergency planning and response
- Coupling of real-time sensor data and predictive modeling for informing evacuation and emergency response
- Factors affecting occupant decision-making in emergency building evacuation
- Use of elevators for occupant evacuation in very tall buildings
- Fire and emergency systems reliability in very tall buildings
- Risk-informed performance-based fire engineering analysis and design
- Quantification of design fires and acceptance criteria for use in performance-based codes
- Quantification of fire performance of buildings
- Comparative analysis of fire performance criteria in performance-based building codes around the world
- Investigation of tolerable levels of fire risk in buildings
- Data, tools and methods for fire risk analysis and management
- Identification and treatment of uncertainty and variability in a performance-based regulatory and design environment
Frank Noonan
Operations risk management with applications in: fire protection engineering, manufacturing-service operations, environmental risk, military operations/homeland security and medical decision analysis.
Kathy A. Notarianni
Fire detection and suppression; high-bay fire protection; fire policy and risk; uncertainty; performance-based design; engineering tools.
Ali S. Rangwala
My research interests lie broadly in the field of fire-related problems with emphasis in combustion and thermal sciences which are applicable to the field of Fire Protection Engineering. More specifically, I am interested in pursuing research in the following areas of study:
- Theoretical and experimental study of ignition and deflagration of dust clouds.
- Velocity measurement of fire induced flows
- Flame spread on solid and liquid fuels.
More details about my past and current projects are on my website. Click on the students link to find out more about different projects.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: March 21, 2008 09:05:36