Development of Methodologies for Dust Explosion Vent Sizing - Guest Lecturer Dr. Francesco Tamanini

Guest Lecture Title: Development of Methodologies for Dust Explosion Vent Sizing

Dr. Francesco Tamanini

Formerly: Senior Research Fellow

FM, Research Division, Norwood, MA, USA

Dr. Tamanini started working at Factory Mutual Research in 1974 after receiving a Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University.  He also holds an MS degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology and a Laurea in mechanical engineering from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy.  He retired from FM at the end of February 2025.

After doing initial work on the computer modeling of fires and for several years leading FM’s research activities in the area of explosions, Franco moved in 2004 to the Consulting Research Scientist position and eventually was named Sr. Research Fellow. In that role, he provided support to the Manager of Research, and to the entire scientific and engineering staff, on issues spanning all research topics of interest to FM.  They included: fire testing, material flammability, CFD modeling of fires and explosions, impact of natural hazards (wind, flood, earthquake) on property, risk assessment, equipment reliability, and material damage. As temporary departures from his focus on technical contributions, he also covered various managerial positions within the Research Division.  In particular, during April 2021-June 2023 he served as Acting Director for the Equipment, Cyber and Materials Science Area. 

Franco has contributed original work to several technical areas: 

• extinguishment of fires by water sprays;
• computer modeling of turbulent buoyancy‑controlled flames;
• measurements of the flammability properties of materials;
• large‑scale experiments on the combustion behavior of hydrogen releases into confined volumes;
• definition of the reactivity characteristics of silane;
• vent sizing requirements for explosions in layered vapor/air mixtures;
• engineering tools for dust explosion protection vent sizing;
• protection of storage of cellulose nitrate film;
• interpretation of ceiling layer temperatures in large-scale fires; and
• various other fire problems, as well as dust and gas explosions. 

He has served as the Chairman of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute, is the 1996 recipient of the Bill Doyle award of the AIChE, has served as the Secretary and Treasurer of the International FORUM of Fire Research Director, and has published numerous refereed papers and technical reports.

This lecture is offered as part of FP 575 (Explosion Protection Engineering) taught by Prof. Lorenz Boeck and FP 580 Combustion taught by Prof. Ali Rangwala for the Explosion Protection Engineering (XPE) – A new and exciting interdisciplinary MS program by Aerospace, Chemical Civil, Fire Protection, and Mechanical Engineering at WPI.

https://www.wpi.edu/academics/study/master-science-explosion-protection-engineering