The controlled use of fire dates back to at least 400,000 years ago. Fire has played a crucial role in human history, allowing safe consumption of meat, expanding the range of inhabitable land (to colder regions), and providing an energy source. Fire also poses a great threat to life and property (e.g., forest fires). However, the science of fire has not been explored until the past few decades, and our understanding of fire dynamics is far from complete. Furthermore, ever-involving technologies present new challenges for fire safety every day. 

In this talk, various research efforts will be presented. They include numerical modeling, ground experiments, and microgravity burning experiments utilizing various platforms (e.g., drop tower, unmanned space vehicles, and facility aboard the International Space Station). The rationale for conducting experiments in microgravity is to remove the confounding effect of buoyancy flow. This gravity-induced flow varies with fire size, location, and time, and is difficult to characterize. In a microgravity environment, buoyancy flow can be replaced with a controlled flow imposed on the flame, permitting systematic studies of the underlying physics. This talk will discuss how microgravity experiments provide invaluable data for model and theory development. The talk will also demonstrate the importance of fundamental research for advancing fire science and improving fire safety both on Earth and in space.

Ya-Ting T. Liao is an associate professor and the faculty director of the UL Fire and Combustion Laboratories at Case Western Reserve University. She also leads the Computational Fire Dynamics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and uses numerical modeling and experimentation to study basic fire science and fire dynamics in specific situations (e.g., space vehicle, forests) or in situations with unique chemistry (e.g., lithium-ion batteries). In addition to ground tests in her lab at CWRU, Liao conducts experiments on various microgravity platforms, including the U.S. National Laboratory aboard the International Space Station. By combining the capabilities of micro- and normo-gravity experiments with numerical modeling, Liao explores various fire phenomena and proposes new theories and correlations in fire dynamics. Liao’s work has been supported by various funding agencies including NSF, NASA, CASIS and UL.

Join us on Friday, Feb. 7, for this exciting presentation from Liao. Lunch will be available in Hayes 216 from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and the presentation will begin in Hayes 211/213 at 12:10 p.m. We hope to see you there!