NIST only participates in the February and August reviews.
Measurements in full-scale fires are challenging due to the inherent size, severity, and range of conditions of the environment. The uncertainty of conventional fire measurements can be large due to the practical assumptions used to develop the measurements. State-of-the-art measurement technology is available to provide independent confirmation of conventional fire measurements and better assessments of measurement uncertainty. Techniques such as particle image velocimetry (PIV) have been successfully demonstrated in large-scale enclosure fires and provide motivation for the application of similar technologies. We are interested in developing improved measurement methods of flow, temperature, heat transfer, gas species, and particulate mass that can be successfully scaled to field applicable measurements in large-scale fire experiments. Available equipment includes a PIV system, optical extinction and optical scattering instruments, aerosol detectors, gas chromatographs, photoacoustic spectrometers, infrared detectors, and well-characterized burners and calorimeters.
Relevant Publications:
Bryant RA, Chernovsky AA, Fire Safety Journal, v156, 2025.
Davis A, Cleary T, Falkenstein-Smith R, Bryant R, Environmental Science and Technology - Air, v2, 2025.
Di Cristina G, Bryant RA, Proceedings of the Combustion Inst, v40 2024.
Bryant RA, Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, v61, 2018.
Bryant RA, Experiments in Fluids, v47, 2009.
Fire dynamics; Combustion; Thermal fluids; Flow measurement; Heat transfer; Laser diagnostics; Measurement science;
level
Open to Postdoctoral applicants